Frank Tomney

Frank Tomney (24 May 1908 – 19 September 1984) was a British Labour Party politician.[1][2]

Born in Bolton, Lancashire, Tomney found himself jobless during the Great Depression and walked to London in search of employment.[2] After arriving in London he moved into the Rowton House in Hammersmith, a hostel for working men. This was to be the beginning of a long association with that area of west London.

Tomney obtained work as a night-watchman in a glass blowing factory, and became an active trade unionist.[2] From 1940 he was branch secretary of the General and Municipal Workers Union.[2][1]

With an approaching general election in 1950, the Labour Party found itself without a candidate at Hammersmith North. The sitting Member of Parliament, D. N. Pritt, had been expelled from the party and had won the seat in 1945 as a member of the left-wing Labour Independent Group. Tomney volunteered to stand, and was comfortably elected with a majority of nearly 3,000 votes over Pritt.[2] He was re-elected at each election until he stood down in 1979, and was seen as being on the right wing of the Labour Party, a fact that was often to lead to conflict within the constituency party in Hammersmith North.[2]

In 1976 Tomney was deselected by his constituency party.[3] This was partly a result of his having right-wing views on homosexuality, race and capital punishment which one party official described as being closer to the policies of the National Front.[4]

Tomney took an interest in European and international affairs, and was a delegate to the Council of Europe and the Western European Union on a number of occasions between 1963 and 1979.[1] In 1968 he was leader of the United Kingdom delegation to the United Nations, and from 1976 to 1977 was a Member of the European Parliament.[1][2] He was opposed to sanctions against Rhodesia.

He lived in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, and was a member of Watford Town Council from 1946 to 1950 and of Hertfordshire County Council from 1950 to 1954.[1]

Tomney retired from the House of Commons in 1979. He died aged 76 in Hillingdon Hospital.[2]

References
  • Times Guide to the House of Commons October 1974
  1. "Tomney, Frank". Who Was Who. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  2. "Obituary: Mr Frank Tomney". The Times. 20 September 1984. p. 14.
  3. Pugh, Martin. (2011). Speak for Britain! : a new history of the Labour Party. London: Vintage. ISBN 9780099520788. OCLC 671870447.
  4. Shaw, Eric, 1949- (1988). Discipline and discord in the Labour Party : the politics of managerial control in the Labour Party, 1951-87. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 071902482X. OCLC 17412352.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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