Baron Field of Birkenhead, CH, PC, DL 1942-2024

 The Baron Field of Birkenhead, CH, PC, DL, who died 23 April, 2024, aged 81, was, as Frank Field, a Labour MP who dedicated his career to tackling child poverty.

Frank Ernest Field was born 16 July, 1942, son of Walter and Annie Field. He served as the MP for Birkenhead for 40 years, 1979-2019, as the Labour MP until August, 2018, and thereafter as an independent. . In 2019, he formed the Birkenhead Social Justice Party and stood unsuccessfully as its sole candidate in the 2019 election. After leaving the House of Commons he was awarded a life peerage in 2020 and sat in the House of Lords as a crossbencher. From 1997 to 1998, Field served as the Minister of Welfare Reform in Tony Blair's government. Field resigned following differences with the Prime Minister; as a backbencher he soon became one of the Labour government's most vocal critics. Field was elected Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee in June 2015. Following the 2017 general election he was re-elected unopposed. In August 2018, Field resigned the Labour whip citing antisemitism in the party, as well as a "culture of intolerance, nastiness and intimidation" in parts of the party, including in his own constituency. Field lost a confidence vote in his constituency party a month before his resignation, after siding with the government in Brexit votes. His resignation of the whip also led to his departure from the wider membership of the Labour Party, according to the Labour National Executive Committee, although Field disputed this.

Frank Field was sworn of the Privy Council in 1997. He was appointed as a deputy lieutenant for the county of Merseyside in October 2011.  At the age of 75 he was moved to the retired list.

Field was awarded an honorary fellowship by Liverpool John Moores University on 12 July 2016. In 2017, he was awarded the Langton Award for Community Service by the Archbishop of Canterbury "for sustained and outstanding commitment to social welfare". Field was nominated for a life peerage in the 2019 Dissolution Honours, and his peerage was gazetted in the name, style and title of Baron Field of Birkenhead, of Birkenhead in the County of Merseyside, on 11 September 2020.

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