My friend and party colleague Richard Stokes, who has died aged 100, was a brilliant politician who achieved an executive position only at the age of 81 when he became leader of Slough borough council as the Liberal head of a four-party coalition.
Brought up as a socialist in Southport, where he was a neighbour of my family on the same housing estate, Richard was originally a Labour party member, and in 1952 stood as a token candidate in the Birkdale West ward, the safest Conservative seat. He duly completed the statutory expenses return, listing “Two pence - the cost of a stamp to send in the return”.
