Prime Minister Harold Wilson Prime Minister Harold Wilson Prime Minister Harold Wilson Name Frederick Baron Died February 4, 1984 | Preceded by George Thomson Preceded by Frank Pakenham Preceded by Frederick Erroll Role British Politician Party Labour Party | |
Succeeded by George Thomson, Baron Thomson of Monifieth | ||
Frederick Lee, Baron Lee of Newton PC (3 August 1906 – 4 February 1984) was a British Labour Party politician and peer.
Born in Manchester to Joseph and Margaret Lee, he was educated at Langworthy Road School of Engineering. He was Chairman of the Works Committee at Metro-Vickers Ltd, Trafford Park, Manchester, and of the National Committee of the Amalgamated Engineering Union from 1944-45. Formerly a Member of Salford City Council, at the 1945 general election he was elected as Member of Parliament for Manchester Hulme.
When that constituency was abolished for the 1950 general election, he was elected for the Newton constituency in Lancashire, and sat for that constituency until retiring from Parliament at the February 1974 general election. In 1960, on the death of Aneurin Bevan, he stood as a left-wing candidate for Labour's Deputy Leadership against George Brown and James Callaghan. After Callaghan had been eliminated, Lee was defeated by Brown by 146 votes to 83.
He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1948, and held Ministerial office as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour and National Service from 1950–51, Minister of Power from 1964 to 1966, the last Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1966, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1967 to 1969. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1964, and on his retirement in 1974 was created a life peer on 1 July 1974 as Baron Lee of Newton, of Newton in the County of Merseyside.