Stephen Swingler

Stephen Thomas Swingler, PC (2 March 1915 – 19 February 1969) was a British Labour Party politician who was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1945 to 1950, and from 1951 to his death.

Early life Swingler was the son of Rev. H. Swingler, and was educated at Stowe and New College, Oxford, where he took a B.A. in Philosophy, politics and economics (1936). Before entering politics he was a lecturer in adult education for the Workers' Educational Association. He served as a Captain in the Royal Armoured Corps from 1941 to 1945.

Political career In the Labour landslide at the 1945 general election, he was elected as MP for the previously Conservative-held seat of Stafford. When the constituency was abolished at the 1950 general election, he contested the new Stafford and Stone seat, but was defeated by Hugh Fraser. Following his defeat, he wrote for the New Statesman and Tribune. He was then promoted to Minister of State at the same department until November 1968, when he was moved to the new Department of Health and Social Security to become Minister of State for Social Services, and appointed as a Privy Councillor.

John Bodkin Adams case Swingler played a minor but interesting part in the John Bodkin Adams affair. On 8 November 1956, the Attorney-General Reginald Manningham-Buller handed the Scotland Yard report into Adams' activities to Dr McRae, Secretary of the British Medical Association (BMA), effectively the doctors' trade union in Britain. The prosecution's most valuable document was then copied and passed to Adams' defence counsel.

After a tip-off from a Daily Mail journalist, on 28 November Swingler (in conjunction with MP Hugh Delargy) addressed a question to the Attorney-General to be answered in the House of Commons on 3 December regarding Manningham-Buller's recent contacts with the General Medical Council. Manningham-Buller was absent on the day in question but gave a written reply stating he had "had no communications with the General Medical Council within the last six months." He avoided referring to the BMA directly (despite it being named in Delargy's question) and therefore avoided lying, though it could be argued, deliberately misled the House.

Adams was eventually acquitted of the murder of Edith Alice Morrell but was suspected by Home Office pathologist Francis Camps of killing 163 patients.

Personal life Swingler was married in 1936 to Anne Matthews, daughter of John Matthews, of Mitcham, formerly of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Swingler had a heart attack on 13 February 1969, and died at a hospital in London six days later, on 19 February, aged 53.