20 Facts About David Marquand

David Marquand's father was Hilary Marquand, an academic and former Labour MP.

David Marquand first stood for Parliament at the Welsh seat of Barry in 1964, but lost to the Conservative incumbent Raymond Gower.

David Marquand was elected the MP for Ashfield in 1966 and served in the House of Commons until 1977, when he resigned his seat to work as Chief Advisor to his mentor Roy Jenkins, who had been appointed President of the European Commission.

David Marquand sat on the party's national committee from 1981 until 1988 and was an unsuccessful candidate for the party in the High Peak constituency in the 1983 general election.

In October 2016, it was reported that David Marquand had left Labour once more, and had joined Plaid Cymru, though he remained hopeful for anti-Conservative parties to work together in the aftermath of the vote for Brexit.

At the time of his death, David Marquand was a visiting fellow in the Department of Politics at the University of Oxford and Honorary Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield.

David Marquand's writings are broadly based upon issues surrounding British politics and social democracy.

David Marquand is widely linked to the term "progressive politics" and the concept of a "progressive dilemma" in British politics, although while he continued to advocate the ideas behind the term, he later distanced himself from the shorthand term itself.

David Marquand wrote extensively on the future of the European Union and the need for constitutional reform in the United Kingdom.

David Marquand argued that the influx of middle-class radicals into the Labour Party during the interwar years had transformed Labour from a trade union pressure group into the main progressive party.

However, with Labour moving to the left in the 1970s, David Marquand believed that the party was becoming intolerantly proletarian and attached to an old-fashioned socialism.

David Marquand wrote that Labour had "outlived its usefulness" as a means to progressive social change and that middle-class radicals needed a new platform for their ideas.

David Marquand addressed Britain's relative economic decline in The Unprincipled Society and The New Reckoning.

David Marquand argued that this decline was caused by Britain's failure to become a developmental state like France, Germany and Japan.

David Marquand was one of 20 signatories to the founding statement of the democratic left-wing group Compass.

David Marquand was among 30 people to sign a letter to The Guardian, headlined "Lib Dems Are The Party of Progress," in support of the Liberal Democrats at 2010 general election but withdrew this support less than a month after the election.

David Marquand rejoined the Labour Party and came out in full support of the then leader Ed Miliband.

David Marquand was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1998.

David Marquand is recognised by the newly opened Marquand Reading Room at his old school, Emanuel School in London.

David Marquand was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales in 2013.