John Tomlinson, the former Foreign Office minister, who has died aged 84, had an active career in Labour politics that spanned an extraordinary six decades. He was first elected to office as the youngest Sheffield city councillor in 1964, became an MP at his third attempt, in February 1974, sat as a member of the European parliament for 15 years from 1984, and was appointed in 1998 to the House of Lords, where he remained busily involved until his death.
He had the distinction of serving as the last parliamentary private secretary to Harold Wilson, before the latter’s surprise resignation in 1976 as prime minister. It was some measure of Tomlinson’s capabilities that he was appointed to such a significant post as a newly elected MP, shortly after the second 1974 general election that gave Wilson the overall parliamentary majority he had previously lacked. Tomlinson was a pro-Europe, loyalist moderate, a member of the influential Manifesto group of Labour MPs established to counter the perceived leftward drift of the party, and Wilson listened to and acted on the advice on party tactics proffered by his young aide.
