Illtyd Harrington

Illtyd Harrington (14 July 1931 – 1 October 2015) was a British Labour Party politician who served as deputy leader of the Greater London Council (1981–84) and then subsequently as chairman (1984–85). He was a political ally of Ken Livingstone.

Personal life Harrington was a Welshman born in Merthyr Tydfil to Timothy and Sarah (née Burchell) Harrington. It was a mixed marriage; his mother was a devout Catholic. His father was an atheist and Communist, who fought against the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War. His mother, known as "Sally", was also an anti-fascist. In the poverty of the 1930s, she also sold her wedding ring to keep the family for a week, telling her husband it had dropped down the sink."She beat up the national organiser of the British Union of Fascists – she was a woman not of reflection, but of action. He was coming out with all this racist filth and she went for him with her shoe. And then she took off with the fascists chasing her."

He was elected in 1964 to represent Brent on the Greater London Council. He lost his seat at the 1967 election and stood unsuccessfully in 1970. He served as an alderman on the council from 1970 to 1973. He was elected to the new seat of Brent South in 1973 and was re-elected in 1977 and 1981.

He was rejected as a potential parliamentary candidate for Merthyr Tydfil.

Early in his career, Harrington developed the Freedom Pass, which gave free travel on London buses to the elderly and disabled. Harrington worked to save the Regent's Canal from demolition and was appointed as the first president of Inland Waterways Amenity Advisory Council, which became a model for the Rail Passenger's User Council introduced under Tony Blair's premiership. Harrington was chosen a member of the British Waterways Board.

He was the penultimate Chairman of the Greater London Council from 1984 to 1985.