14 Facts About Marcus Lipton

Marcus Lipton CBE was a British Labour Party politician.

The son of Benjamin and Mary Lipton of Sunderland, Marcus Lipton was educated at Hudson Road Council School and Bede Grammar School in the town, before winning a scholarship to Merton College, Oxford in 1919.

Marcus Lipton was supported by a Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths exhibition bursary.

Marcus Lipton graduated with a Second in Modern History in 1922 and then studied law and was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1926.

Marcus Lipton became an alderman of Lambeth Metropolitan Borough Council in 1937 serving until 1959.

Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, Marcus Lipton enlisted as a private in a Territorial Army unit of the Royal Army Pay Corps.

Marcus Lipton was commissioned as an officer in the Army Educational Corps in 1941, rising to Lieutenant-Colonel by the end of the war in 1945.

Marcus Lipton was elected as the Member of Parliament for Brixton in the 1945 general election, defeating the sitting Conservative Party MP Nigel Colman.

Marcus Lipton retained the seat at each subsequent election until it was abolished at the February 1974 general election.

Marcus Lipton was elected as MP for the successor seat of Lambeth Central, remaining in the Commons until his death.

Marcus Lipton was an active parliamentarian, known for putting topical and difficult questions to the executive.

In 1964 Marcus Lipton brought up the case of the missing Lionel Crabb, again using parliamentary privilege.

Marcus Lipton collapsed at his home in Holborn, London on 20 February 1978 and died two days later in Westminster Hospital.

Marcus Lipton gave a tour of Parliament to a 13-year-old constituent in the 1950s, John Major, sparking a political ambition that led Major to becoming Conservative Prime Minister.