Judith Hart Labour’s Lost Heroine Ella Staddon
LOOK LEFT
Following the announcement of Judith Hart’s death in 1991, Labour Leader Neil Kinnock described her as “a woman of high abilities who will long be remembered and admired for her distinguished work to advance human rights”. And yet, 30 years on, Judith Hart is largely forgotten. A brilliant campaigner for the marginalised across the globe, against nuclear weapons, and for the advancement of women in politics, Hart should be considered up there as one of the greats of our movement’s past. In reality, she is usually lucky if she gets a footnote in Labour history books. In the context of Putin’s war in Ukraine and Tory cuts to the foreign aid budget to fund our breaking of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Hart’s life’s work is just as relevant now as it was 50 years ago. Born Constance Mary Ridehalgh in 1924, Hart grew up amongst the poverty and mass unemployment of the 1930s. Her mother, a schoolteacher and active pacifist campaigner, died when she was 11, after which she changed her name to Judith. Having gained a full scholarship to study at the local grammar school, she went on to study at the LSE, which had relocated to Cambridge
during the war. It was in Cambridge that she became active in Labour politics, rising to becoming Secretary of the Labour Club and later its Chair. Her political pursuits at university had little impact on the outcome of her degree, and she graduated in 1945 with a first. Though not yet pursuing political office, she remained active in Labour politics and her trade union. It was during a trade union meeting that she met Dr Tony Hart, who joined her in speaking out against nuclear weapons. They married in 1946. Against the convention of the time, Hart continued to work as a researcher and began to stand in council elections. In 1951 she made her first conference speech, warning her comrades “not to underestimate the womenfolk”, who wanted to live in a world free of nuclear weapons. After standing unsuccessfully for parliament twice in 1951 and 1955, she was selected to stand for Lanark- the largest constituency in the UK. That same year Tony Hart had also been selected for a parliamentary seat, however upon Judith’s selection he withdrew his candidacy, believing her to be the better candidate. Later, when she was a minister, he took a demotion in
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