Roy Hattersley died on 13 June 2026, aged 93, according to The Guardian and Sky News. He was a senior Labour politician and author who shaped British politics over six decades.

Hattersley was born in Sheffield on 28 December 1932. He became an MP in the 1960s and rose through the ranks to become Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. He held this role under Neil Kinnock in the 1980s, a time when Labour was struggling. The party had suffered a huge election defeat in 1983, and many moderate members had left to form a new political party. Hattersley and Kinnock had to rebuild trust with voters while managing fierce arguments within Labour itself.

Hattersley believed in using government to reduce inequality and help working people — ideas he came from growing up in Yorkshire. He disagreed with both the far-left members of Labour and later with the party's decision to embrace business-friendly policies. In 1987, he wrote a book called Choose Freedom explaining why equality matters. It was serious political philosophy, not just party talking points.

After Labour lost the 1992 election — a defeat Hattersley took hard — he moved into a different kind of work. He was made a Lord and spent decades writing books, columns for The Guardian newspaper, and giving broadcasts. He wrote novels, memoirs, and biographies alongside his political journalism. Unlike many politicians who disappear from public life, Hattersley stayed engaged with ideas and kept writing thoughtfully about politics.

What made Hattersley unusual was that he combined real governing experience with serious thinking about politics. He had served as a government minister in important roles, yet he was willing to think and argue publicly about what his party should stand for. This made him different from modern politicians, who often focus on controlling their public image rather than engaging in genuine debate.

When New Labour under Tony Blair moved the party toward business-friendly policies, Hattersley disagreed and said so openly. This cost him influence in the party, but it also meant people trusted him to tell the truth as he saw it. His life shows a particular kind of politics — moderate, based on practical experience, skeptical of both extreme versions of socialism and pure free-market ideas — that has become less common in Labour. His death means that almost none of the politicians who helped Labour recover from its worst defeats in the 1980s are still alive.

BBC News confirmed his death on 15 June 2026.