Maurice Webb (politician)

Maurice Webb PC (September 26, 1904 – June 10, 1956) was a British Labour politician.

Webb joined the Labour Party in 1922 as a teenager and was a well-known political journalist, including for the Daily Herald. From 1929 to 1935 he worked as the Party's propaganda officer. He was also a broadcast commentator and a member of the executive of the National Union of Journalists.

Webb was elected Member of Parliament for Bradford Central in the 1945 general election. He served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party from 1946 to 1950. In 1949 he intervened to delay Brian Close's National Service so the 18-year-old Close could complete the cricket season playing for Yorkshire County Cricket Club. In 1950, he was appointed as Minister of Food, a key job in a time of rationing, and was appointed as a Privy Counsellor. After his Bradford Central seat was abolished for the 1955 election, he ran in Bradford North and narrowly lost to the sitting Conservative MP.

He died in June 1956 aged 51.

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs