Fred Peart, Baron Peart

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The Right Honourable  The Lord Peart  PC
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food
In office 18th October 1964 – 6th April 1968
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Christopher Soames
Succeeded by	Cledwyn Hughes
In office 5th March 1974 – 10th September 1976
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson James Callaghan
Preceded by	Joseph Godber
Succeeded by	John Silkin
Lord Privy Seal
In office 6th April – 1st November 1968
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	The Lord Shackleton
Succeeded by	The Lord Shackleton
Leader of the House of Commons & Lord President of the Council
In office 1st November 1968 – 20th June 1970
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Richard Crossman
Succeeded by	Willie Whitelaw
Leader of the House of Lords & Lord Privy Seal
In office 10th September 1976 – 4th May 1979
Prime Minister	James Callaghan
Preceded by	The Lord Shepherd
Succeeded by	The Lord Soames (as Leader of the House of Lords) Sir Ian Gilmour, Bart. (as Lord Privy Seal)
Born	30 April 1914(1914-04-30)
Died	26 August 1988 (aged 74)
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour

Thomas Frederick "Fred" Peart, Baron Peart, PC (30 April 1914 – 26 August 1988) was a British Labour politician who served in the Labour governments of the 1960s and 1970s and was a candidate for Deputy Leader of the Party.

Peart qualified as a teacher at the University of Durham in 1936. He served in World War II, gaining the rank of Captain.

Peart was elected Member of Parliament for Workington in 1945, serving until 1976. He initially served as PPS to the Minister of Agriculture & Fisheries (Tom Williams.

Peart, along with the rest of the Labour Party, went into opposition after Sir Winston Churchill's 1951 election victory. In 1964, he returned to government after Harold Wilson defeated Sir Alec Douglas-Home at that year's election. He was appointed to the Cabinet holding the position Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, a senior one. His tenure saw advances in pay for agricultural labourers, and in technology. In 1968 Peart became Lord Privy Seal, with no particular responsibilities. This was because it suited Wilson to remove him from the Cabinet, but he wanted to keep him in the Cabinet. When the then Leader of the House of Commons was moved seven months later, Peart became Leader of the House of Commons, taking the subsidiary title Lord President of the Council. After Labour lost the 1970 election, Peart returned to opposition. When Labour returned to power, Peart became Agriculture Minister once more. Not long after Wilson stood down in 1976, Peart was made a life peer in 1976 as Baron Peart, of Workington in the County of Cumbria, serving as Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal at a time when the Labour faction in the Lords was tiny compared to the vast Tory majority, mainly composed of hereditary peers, led by the elegant Lord Carrington, a hereditary peer, and Lord Soames, who although only a newly-created life peer was Churchill's son-in-law, and hence a member of the Spencer-Churchill-Vanderbilt family, one of England's and America's grandest aristocratic families. This was odd territory for a working-class man like Peart, but he handled the affairs of the Lords competently. After Margaret Thatcher won the 1979 election, Peart went into opposition once again.

Lord Peart died in 1988.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Thomas Cape	Member of Parliament for Workington 1945–1976	Succeeded by Richard Page
Political offices
Preceded by Christopher Soames	Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 1964–1968	Succeeded by Cledwyn Hughes
Preceded by The Lord Shackleton	Lord Privy Seal 1968	Succeeded by The Lord Shackleton
Preceded by Richard Crossman	Lord President of the Council 1968–1970	Succeeded by William Whitelaw
	Leader of the House of Commons 1968–1970
Preceded by Joseph Godber	Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 1974–1976	Succeeded by John Silkin
Preceded by The Lord Shepherd	Lord Privy Seal 1976–1979	Succeeded by Sir Ian Gilmour