A PROPOSAL to have a statue of Harold Wilson in the House of Commons has been aired in the Chamber – but ended up going nowhere at this stage.
Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman says Harold Wilson’s premiership should be marked by a statue at the entrance to the Commons to mark 50 years since he assumed the Labour leadership.
Mr Sheerman said a full statue of Mr Wilson should stand in the members’ lobby alongside that of Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George and Clement Attlee.
A bust of Mr Wilson, who was premier for more than seven years in two spells, is featured in the lobby, which is between the Central Lobby of the House of Parliament and the door of the House of Commons.
Mr Wilson became leader of the Labour Party on February 14, 1963, and served as prime minister twice.
Mr Sheerman said: “The Wilson years give an example of someone who as prime minister kept us out of the Vietnam War, resolutely telling (US president) Lyndon B Johnson he was not going to send a band of bagpipes to it, he also expanded higher education tremendously, and the Open University, and he gave people a choice on Europe.
“There are lessons to be learned.”
Commons Leader Andrew Lansley, who was taking questions on the weekly business statement, said: “There is a bust of Harold Wilson in the members’ lobby.
“But I felt as you were describing the attributes in office of Harold Wilson, it was almost like you were attempting a critique of Tony Blair at the same moment?”
