The appellation of “good constituency MP” often carries the somewhat pejorative suggestion of a mediocre politician who has failed to make a mark as a national figure at Westminster. However, in the case of Ken Weetch, who has died aged 92, it explains, rather, his remarkable survival for 13 years as the Labour MP for Ipswich against the prevailing electoral trends of the time.
He also wrote his name into the statute book of history for his successful campaign to end the long-standing monopoly of solicitors over the conveyancing of property. He introduced two private members’ bills, in 1974 and 1976, in an attempt to highlight what he termed this “vicious restrictive practice” and continued to exert such pressure that the Thatcher government was persuaded eventually to outlaw the monopoly within the provisions of the Administration of Justice Act, 1985.
