The influential former secretary of the parliamentary Labour party (PLP), Alan Haworth, Lord Haworth, who has died aged 75, was one of the least publicly known yet most significant party figures over the past three decades. He was a close personal friend of two Labour leaders, John Smith and Tony Blair, but more importantly was responsible for restoring the lost political discipline among Labour MPs that proved vital in establishing the will to win the 1997 general election.
A radical student and leftwing activist in his 20s, he became a Labour party pluralist who understood probably better than anyone the way the party worked – whatever the political discipline of any individual. What’s more, he knew its history and the rule book. This gave him an invaluable authority as the senior parliamentary backroom official, and meant that he was listened to – and heard – by the leadership as well as by independent-minded potential troublemakers on the backbenches.
