Senior Catholic MPs to stand down

by Joanna Moorhead
AT least five senior Catholic MPs will be missing from the House of Commons when it re-convenes after the General Election.
The five Labour's Sir Patrick Duffy, and Conservatives Sir Barney Hayhoe, Sir Hugh Rossi, Sir David Price and Sir Dennis Walters are all retiring from their seats.
In addition, several Catholic MPs standing for re-election are defending slender majorities. Among those with a fight on their hands are prominent pro-lifer David Alton, who is Liberal Democrat MP for Liverpool Mossley Hill, Keith Vaz, who holds Leicester East for Labour, and Tim Devlin, Conservative MP for Stockton South.
Of the retiring Catholic MPs Sir Patrick Duffy, a staunch supporter of Christian values in the House of Commons, is likely to be one of the most keenly missed.
Sir Patrick, who has been Labour MP for Sheffield Attercliffe since 1970, robustly defended the right to a conscience vote on issues such as embryo experimentation. Despite his party's espousal of a more liberal attitude towards such issues as divorce and abortion, Sir Patrick managed to retain his credibility as both a loyal Labour party member and a faithful Catholic.
Born in 1920, Sir Patrick whose knighthood last year was the first awarded to a Labour MP for 15 years first entered the House of Commons in 1963 as MP for Colne. He lost his scat three years later, but returned in 1970 and was given a post in the Ministry of Defence six years later.
In recent years Sir Patrick has been best known for his work as president of the North Atlantic Assembly, NATO's discussion forum, for two years in the late 1980s.
Of the retiring Tories Sir Hugh Rossi, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green since 1966, is among the best known. A lawyer and keen environmentalist, Sir Hugh has chaired the House of Commons ONE of the retiring MPs, Sir Hugh Rossi, said this week he thought the church could do more to support its Catholic members in the House of Commons.
Sir Hugh said throughout his years in Parliament he had had a far closer relationship with Christians of other denominations than with any Catholic priests.
"Catholic clerics just don't enter the world as they should. During my time as an MP I've had a closer relationship with Methodist ministers, Anglican vicars and Jewish rabbis than Catholic priests," he said.
"I've found that, with a few exceptions, other denominations have always come to me and invited me to go and see them more than the Catholics have."
Catholics did not seem to be aware, said Sir Hugh, of the extent to which they could influence the affairs of the state.
Select Committee on the Environment since 1983 and has been involved in the production of reports on such issues as green belts, acid ram, radioactive waste disposal, water pollution and the Sports Council.
His colleague Sir Barney Hayhoe, who entered Parliament Iii 1970 as representative for Heston and Isleworth, held several ministerial posts in his early years in Parliament and was an opposition spokesperson on employment between 1974 and 1979. During Mrs Thatcher's first two administrations, Sir Barney was a DHSS and treasury minister and a prominent "wet".
A member of the Select Committee on Defence, the Commons Commission and the Public Accounts Commission, Sir Barney was appointed a Privy Councillor in 1985 and was made a knight two years later.
Sir Dennis Walters, MP for Westbury since 1964, is an expert on Middle Eastern affairs and is a frequent visitor to the region.
His career has been dominated by his interest in foreign affairs, and he was secretary, and later vice-chairman, of the Conservative parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, joint chairman of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding during the 1970s, and has chaired the Conservative Middle East Council since 1980.
Sir David Price, who has been active in politics since he left the army in 1946 after war service with the Scots Guards, has been MP for F.astleigh since 1955.
In Parliament he has concentrated on scientific, managerial, economic, industrial and health matters, and has been an officer of various party and allparty committees over the years.
A UK delegate to the Council of Europe and to the Western European Union between 1958 and 1961, Sir David has also served in various Conservative governments. He was Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade from July 1962 until the 1964 General Election, was a spokesman on technology and science from 1964 to 1970, and chairman of the Science and Technology Committee between 1966 and 1970.
Among interesting contests in the forthcoming election will be the clash at Oxford West and Abingdon marginal between Catholic Horne Office minister John Patten and Labour's Bruce Kent.