The Baron Beecham, DL 1944-2026

 The Baron Beecham, DL, life peer, Labour party politician, died 9 April, 2026. He was 81.

Jeremy Hugh Beecham was born 14 November, 1944. He was a Labour politician and a senior figure in  local government. He was leader of Newcastle City Council and the first Chairman of the Local Government Association. He was the elected Chairman of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party (October 2005 – September 2006).

Beecham was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle upon Tyne, and University College, Oxford (1962–1965), where he obtained a first class honours degree in law. He became a solicitor. He joined the Labour Party in 1959, and was elected a councillor for Benwell, Newcastle, in the Newcastle City Council elections of 11 May 1967. He stood for Parliament without success in Tynemouth in 1970. He chaired the Social Services Committee on the council from 1973 to 1977 and was Leader of Newcastle from 1977 to 1994, chairing the Finance Committee from 1979 to 1984. In 1991, Beecham became Chairman of the Association of Metropolitan Authorities (AMA). When the AMA merged with the Association of District Councils and the Association of County Councils on 1 April 1997 to form the Local Government Association, he became the first chairman of the LGA. He was the LGA vice-chairman and continued to chair the LGA Labour Group. He was the President of the British Urban Regeneration Association. Beecham was a member of many boards and committees in Newcastle and North East England, and in advising government. Beecham was a member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee from 1998 and was its chairman in 2005-2006. 

He was appointed Knight Bachelor in June, 1994. 

Beecham was made a Freeman of the city of Newcastle in 1995. He was Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Tyne and Wear and Benwell and Scotswood on the City Council. He has been a council member at charity Common Purpose since 1989. He was Jewish, and a board member of the New Israel Fund in the UK.

He was raised to the peerage for life in 2010 as Baron Beecham, of Benwell and Newcastle upon Tyne in the County of Tyne and Wear. He was was introduced in the House of Lords on 28 July 2010. He sat on the Labour benches until his retirement in 2021.

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