Ronnie Fearn, Lord Fearn, who has died aged 90, was the former MP for Southport, Merseyside, and a most unusual politician. He succeeded in winning elections despite confounding almost all the expectations of modern formulaic politics and, without being a conventional intellectual Liberal, he was the ultimate party loyalist and committed activist.
Before joining the Liberal party in Southport in early 1961, he had written to the local newspaper complaining about the Conservative council cutting grants to youth organisations – a cause to which he had a lifelong commitment – and he stated then that he only had “slight political leanings”. These nevertheless became enough to draw him into 60 years of Liberal campaigning. He won his local ward, Norwood, for the Southport council in 1963 and he held this seat through every change of name and local government reorganisation for 52 years.
