Peter Shore: Labour’s Forgotten Patriot
by Kevin Hickson, Jasper Miles and Harry Taylor
(Biteback Publishing, £25)

INTEREST in the Labour politician Peter Shore has risen markedly in recent times, thanks in large part to the replaying of his inspiring 1975 Oxford Union debate speech on the dangers of European integration, much YouTubed before and after the Brexit referendum.

This welcome first biography comes from the roots of that renewed interest, for it has been written by Kevin Hickson, Jasper Miles and Harry Taylor, who were involved in the Labour Leave campaign of 2016. So much of the focus is on Shore’s constant and committed opposition to the European project.

But there’s a lot more to consider about a man who was at the heart of Labour politics for a significant chunk of the

post-war period, during which he worked under Hugh Gaitskell, served in Labour cabinets under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan and wrote the Labour manifestos for the 1964, 1966 and 1970 general elections.

He also stood in the 1980 and the 1983 party leadership contests and, before his death in 2001, was a staunch opponent of New Labour.

Hickson, Miles and Taylor argue that Shore was, in many ways, a sorely underused talent. A politician of high intellect, staunch principles, personal and professional probity, great rhetorical skills and exceptional economic knowledge, he was nonetheless given insufficient opportunity to influence, or even lead, the party he loved.

Partly, say the authors, this was down to Shore’s independence of mind, which meant he was often viewed with suspicion both by the left and right of the party. And partly it was down to aspects of his personality — an underlying shyness, an unwillingness to play political games and an inability, on occasion, to form much-needed alliances.

The book covers a lot of ground in making these points and it makes them convincingly. But it does so in a dry and functional fashion, with little consideration of anything other than arid political background.  

The first 24 years of Shore’s life, for instance, are condensed into seven pages, while the later death of his son from a drug overdose is covered in a paragraph. And the revelation that Shore suffered from “deep depression” in the mid-1980s is given just one line.

As a consequence this is very much a political, rather than a personal, biography and it’s difficult to get a sense of the man or understand how the facets of his life affected his outlook and performance.  

That’s not to say the book is without many merits — it’s a commendably detailed consideration of Shore’s political career that gives due credit to his foresighted Eurosceptic ardour in particular and it  presents him as an admirable man with many ideas that could have improved Britain’s — and Labour’s — lot if he had been allowed to have a greater say.