Marcus Lipton

Marcus Lipton CBE (29 October 190022 February 1978) was a British Labour Party politician.

Education The son of Benjamin and Mary Lipton of Sunderland, Marcus Lipton was educated at Hudson Road Council School and Bede Grammar School in the town, before winning a scholarship to Merton College, Oxford in 1919. He was supported by a Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths exhibition bursary. Subsequently, Philby was unmasked in 1963 as a Soviet spy. In 1964 Lipton brought up the case of the missing Lionel Crabb, again using parliamentary privilege.

After a CIA pilot flying in support of the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état deliberately napalmed and destroyed the British cargo ship , Lipton pursued successive Conservative and Labour Foreign Secretaries for the next 13 years over the UK's failure to obtain any compensation for the attack.

Criticism of pop music As a man of a different generation, Lipton in his last years was often critical of the form the pop and rock music industries had developed by the 1970s. On 2 June 1975, he criticised the "mass hysteria deliberately created by the promoters of pop concerts" following scenes at Bay City Rollers shows. Later, in response to the Sex Pistols' criticism of the British royal family, he argued that "if pop music is going to be used to destroy our established institutions, then it must be destroyed first".

Despite this controversy, he released a record himself, "Hand In Hand" back with "Friends In Need", on the Butterfly record label, a label related to Barry Class's Trend label. It was not a chart hit.

Meeting with HMT Empire Windrush migrants Following the arrival of 492 West Indian migrants in 1948, 242 were temporarily housed in Clapham Common tube station, a former air-raid shelter. Contrary to the later experiences of West Indian migrants to the United Kingdom, the 'Windrush men' were welcomed and subsequently invited to an event with a small party of local officials in nearby Brixton. Marcus Lipton, and Councillor Jack Simpson, Mayor of Lambeth, greeted the group at the Astoria Cinema with tea and cakes, followed by a free cinema showing. Lipton told the arrivals that they should see Britain as their second home, commenting: "When I heard of your coming here, I was moved. A journey like yours does not take place without good reason." Black civil rights leader and communist activist Billy Strachan was also present at this meeting, and used it to express his anger at the British government's attempts to scapegoat immigrants to hide their inability to solve the post-war housing crisis.

Reportedly, news of Lipton's generosity contributed to the migrants' boosted perception of the area, later influencing their decision to settle there: "In the unknown and perplexing vastness of England, the Jamaicans now felt they could be sure of one place. Brixton was friendly. In Brixton they would make their homes."

Honours and legacy In 1949 he was created an OBE, advanced to a CBE in 1965.

A youth centre in Lambeth is named after him. He gave a tour of Parliament to a 13-year-old constituent in the 1950s, John Major, sparking a political ambition that led Major to becoming Conservative Prime Minister.