Peter Griffiths

Peter Harry Steve Griffiths (24 May 1928 – 20 November 2013) was a British Conservative politician best known for gaining the Smethwick seat by defeating the Shadow Foreign Secretary Patrick Gordon Walker in the 1964 general election against the national trend.

Life

Griffiths was born in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, and attended West Bromwich Grammar School, Leeds Teacher Training College and London and Birmingham universities before entering a teaching career. In 1955 he was elected to Smethwick County Borough Council^[1] and subsequently stood against the sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Gordon Walker in the 1959 election, reducing Walker's majority from 6,495 to 3,544.^[2]

Griffiths served as a local councillor until 1963 when he resigned to fight the Smethwick parliamentary seat again in the forthcoming general election. Labour were expected to win the 1964 election, and Gordon Walker was Foreign Secretary designate. Smethwick had been a focus of immigration from the Commonwealth during the years of economic and industrial growth following World War II. It was perhaps for these reasons that race and nationality featured prominently in what became an increasingly ill-tempered election campaign in 1964. The Conservatives were accused of running a racist campaign under the slogan "If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour".^[3][4] Griffiths' defeat of Gordon Walker resulted in a furious Harold Wilson claiming in the House of Commons that Griffiths should "serve his term here as a parliamentary leper".^[5][6] In his maiden speech in the Commons, however, Griffiths pointed out the problems faced by local industry and drew attention to the fact that 4,000 families were awaiting local authority accommodation.^[7] Griffiths also wrote his own account of the election in 1966.^[8][9]

Griffiths was in turn defeated by Labour candidate Andrew Faulds in the 1966 general election^[10] and returned to a career in education.^[1] He unsuccessfully fought the Portsmouth North constituency in the February 1974 general election, but did not stand in the October 1974 election. However, he stood again at the 1979 general election, defeating the sitting Labour MP Frank Judd. He held the seat until the Labour landslide at the 1997 election.^[1]

He was married to Jeannette, née Rubery, and they had one son and one daughter.^[1]

He died on 20 November 2013.^[5]

Media Views

Griffiths has recently been described as a racist (or racialist) who blamed the spread of disease on the rise in Black immigrants into the UK and who "killed rational debate about immigration".^[11] Refusing to disown^[12] the infamous 10-word slogan used during the Smethwick election ("if you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour"),^[13] Griffiths is said to have called the slogan "a manifestation of popular feeling",^[12] although he denied that there was any "resentment in Smethwick on the grounds of race or colour", and claimed that he himself had "no colour prejudice".^[13] Popular media views, however, fail to take into account the decline in the Smethwick constituency's support for Patrick Gordon Walker from the 1951 election until his defeat in 1964 ^[2]

References

Bibliography

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages

• Griffiths, P. (1966). A Question Of Colour? The Smethwick Election Of 1964. London: Leslie Frewin. 
• Pearce, R. (2004) "Walker, Patrick Chrestien Gordon, Baron Gordon-Walker (1907–1980)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 26 Aug 2007 (subscription required)
• Prem, D. R. (1965). Parliamentary Leper: A History of Colour Prejudice in Britain. Aligarh University Press: Metric Publications. 
• Webster, L. (2012). Lone Wolf. Dudley: The Kates Hill Press. 
• White, Michael (1 June 2000). "Obituary: Andrew Faulds". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 11 August 2007. 
• Who's Who 2007, "Griffiths, Peter Harry Steve", accessed 26 August 2007 (subscription required)

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Peter Griffiths
• Jenkins, G. (1999). "Labour and immigration: The Badge of Prejudice". Socialist Review. p. 234. Retrieved 26 August 2007.