Death Of Former Local Labour Party MP

Michael Barnes represented Brentford & Chiswick for eight years

Michael Barnes, who has died aged 85, was a former MP for the constituency of Brentford & Chiswick (1966-74) until the seat was abolished due to boundary changes.

In the February 1974 general election, he stood in the new Brentford and Isleworth constituency against the Conservative MP Barney Hayhoe, whose own Heston and Isleworth constituency had also been abolished. Hayhoe won by 726 votes.

After losing the seat of Brentford and Isleworth in 1974, Barnes helped later in establishing the SDP, although he rejoined the Labour Party between 1983 and 2001.

Michael Barnes was a former Legal Services Ombudsman (1990-1996) and between 2002 and 2019 he served as the Independent Assessor of the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Other positions included service as Opposition spokesman on food and food prices (1970-1971), Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party Social Security Group (1969-1970), he served on the ASTMS Parliamentary Committee (1970-1971) and was also a long serving member of the Public Accounts Committee (1967-1974).

He was also Director of the United Kingdom Immigrants Advisory Service (UKIAS) (1984-1990), member of the Council of Management of War on Want (1972-1977), Vice Chairman of the Bangabandhu Society (1980-1990), amongst others.

In his eight years representing Brentford & Chiswick until boundary changes forced him out, Barnes pursued local issues such as noise from Heathrow and congestion on the A4, and championed the creation of the state of Bangladesh.

He is survived by his wife Anne, a son Hugh and daughter, Kate, and six grandchildren.

March 31, 2018