Alexander Ward Lyon (15 October 1931 – 30 September 1993) was a British Labour politician.
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Lyon was educated at West Leeds High School and University College, London. He became a barrister, called to the Bar at Inner Temple in 1954. He was a member of the Bar Council and of the Fabian Society. He was also a Methodist local preacher and secretary of Leeds North West Constituency Labour Party.
Lyon was elected Member of Parliament for the City of York in 1966, having first fought for the seat in 1964. He was Minister of State at the Home Office but, as a radical socialist, was sacked.
In 1971 Alexander Lyon introduced the United Reformed Church Bill, which became the act which created the United Reformed Church from a union of Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches in England and Wales.
In 1981 he tried to amend a Finance Bill to allow those with a ‘conscientious objection to paying for expenditure on defence’ to pay the military part of their taxes to the then Ministry of Overseas Development.
He was defeated in the 1983 General Election by the conservative candidate Conal Gregory.
Whilst at the Home Office, Lyon met and fell in love with one of his civil servants, Clare Short, later a Labour MP and cabinet minister. They married in 1981.
He died in Milton Keynes[1] in 1993 from Alzheimer's disease, aged 61.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by Charles Longbottom |
Member of Parliament for the York 1966–1983 |
Succeeded by Conal Gregory |