TRIBUTE has been paid to a former Keighley MP who served as leader of the Opposition during the Second World War.
Hastings Lees-Smith took-up the role, as chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party, during the time when Clement Attlee was in a coalition Government with Winston Churchill.
To mark the 82nd anniversary of Lees-Smith's appointment, Adrian Farley – the chair of Keighley Constituency Labour Party – paid his respects at a memorial plaque in Keighley Library.
Lees-Smith served as Keighley's MP for 14 years, in three stints between 1922 and 1941.
And he was a senior cabinet member in the second Labour Government – the last Keighley MP to occupy such a lofty position.
He died in December, 1941.
Mr Farley said: "Hastings Lees-Smith was a truly remarkable man who embodied all of the finest traditions of the Labour movement. He and his memory are an inspiration to us all."
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