Desmond Louis Donnelly was a British politician, author and journalist who was a member of four political parties during the course of his career, and moved between parties on five occasions.
19 Facts About Desmond Donnelly
1.
2.
Desmond Donnelly first joined the Labour Party in 1936 after becoming interested in the ideas of William Morris.
3.
Desmond Donnelly enlisted in the Royal Air Force in 1939 and served as a Flying Officer with Bomber Command.
4.
Common Wealth did not long survive the election and Desmond Donnelly rejoined Labour in September 1945.
5.
On leaving the RAF, Desmond Donnelly became assistant editor and later editor of Town and Country Planning, the journal of the Town and Country Planning Association.
6.
Desmond Donnelly contested the 1946 Down by-election as a Northern Ireland Labour Party candidate.
7.
Desmond Donnelly was chosen to fight Pembrokeshire for the Labour Party in the 1950 general election, which a good Labour candidate had narrowly failed to win in 1945 and where the sitting Member, Gwilym Lloyd George, was very popular, not merely because he was the son of David Lloyd George.
8.
Desmond Donnelly made sure to build extensive contacts within his constituency, where he became very popular.
9.
In 1954, Desmond Donnelly fell out with Bevan over the issue of German rearmament which he considered necessary.
10.
Desmond Donnelly was outspokenly anti-Soviet Union, a position which intensified after he made trips to the Soviet bloc.
11.
Desmond Donnelly joined with another Labour MP, Woodrow Wyatt, to publicly oppose the Labour Party policy of nationalising the Steel industry; given the narrow majority which Wilson's government had in its first term, their opposition would have been enough to vote down the plan, and any moves had to be postponed until after the 1966 election gave a landslide majority.
12.
Desmond Donnelly began causing increasing trouble to the Labour Party whips after the election.
13.
Desmond Donnelly became chief political correspondent for the News of the World in 1967 which ensured his views were widely known.
14.
Desmond Donnelly heaped scorn on the government's handling of the economy and called for a fundamental change to the relation of the party to the trade unions "in which the unions do not look on the Labour Party as their pet poodle".
15.
Desmond Donnelly resigned the Labour Party whip in the House of Commons on 18 January 1968.
16.
At a meeting of the Monday Club in 1968, Desmond Donnelly received a two-minute standing ovation, and then told members "Mr Wilson should resign and leave public life".
17.
Abruptly, in April 1971, Desmond Donnelly announced that he had joined the Conservative Party, without warning the members of the Democratic Party.
18.
Desmond Donnelly applied for, but did not get, the Conservative nomination for the Hove by-election in 1973, and was rejected for Melton for the next general election.
19.
Desmond Donnelly committed suicide in a hotel room at West Drayton near Heathrow Airport on 3 April 1974, by drinking a large amount of vodka and taking a massive overdose of barbiturates.