Former Leeds West Liberal Democrat MP and long-time branch member Michael Meadowcroft has died following a short illness. He was 84.
Michael, who was born in Elland but raised in Southport on the Lancashire coast, returned to West Yorkshire for a political career that took him through the voluntary sector in Bradford and Leeds, Liberal Party organisation in London and then into local government before he became an MP in 1983.
Having been a member of the GMB, he joined the NUJ after his time in Westminster and became known as a reliable and objective obituarist for the Guardian and Yorkshire Post as well as specialist political titles, writes Adam Christie.
Within the NUJ, Michael spent a time as branch secretary in the 1990s and made sure that Leeds Other Paper had access to agendas and other documents when Leeds Council tried to exclude the title from its proceedings.
More recently, he was a frequent informal adviser, making political introductions to support the union’s legislative campaigning. You can read an article he wrote in 2020 here.
He is survived by his wife, two children, seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
A longer obituary piece about Michael will be published on this website later.