A CALL has been made for a full statue of Harold Wilson in the Houses of Parliament.
MP Barry Sheerman says the former Prime Minister’s achievements should be recognised with a full-length statue, which many other former PMs have.
The current Huddersfield Labour MP will submit an Early Day Motion, a formal motion calling for debate in the House of Commons. However it doesn’t guarantee debate will take place, due to heavy workload.
Mr Sheerman said: “There is a head and shoulder statue but you have 8ft statues of other Prime Ministers like Thatcher, Lloyd George and Churchill but not for Harold.
“It was during a visit to Vietnam at Christmas that brought home to me everything that he did do for this country.
“Someone there asked me why we didn’t send troops to Vietnam and it was Harold Wilson who said he wasn’t going to do it, not with the Soviet Union on the doorstep.
“It was Harold who drew up a list of technical colleges to become polytechnics, without that we might not have the university in Huddersfield.
“And he introduced the vote for 18-year-olds.
“This isn’t a party political thing, I think it’ll get the support of everyone who recognise what he did.”
Lord Wilson is to be honoured with a memorial stone at Westminster Abbey.
Harold Wilson, who died aged 79 in 1995, led the country from 1964 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1976.
He already has a statue in St George’s Square in Huddersfield
