George-Brown quits Labour Parly

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34093, 4 March 1976, Page 13

George-Brown quits Labour Parly

LONDON. March 2. Lord George-Brown, a former British I oreign Secretary. has resigned from the ruling Labour Party, of which he was once deputy leader. I he colourful and controversial politician said he was leaving the party because it h.:d ceased to be “the defender of individual freedoms." Lord George-Brown, who is HI, has been recently protesting against what he sees as a rise in the influence of Left-wing extremists inside the party . He said yesterday that he was now joining what he called the army ot people who stood tor freedom. such as Soviet dissident author, Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The previous night, along with millions of other Britons, Lord GeorgeBrown had watched a television interview with the exiled novelist, who said that the West was in danger of losing its democratic institutions and becoming totalitarian. “Anybody who saw last night’s television programme on Solzhenitsyn must know what I mean. The Labour Party has become the Establishment. It refuses freedom to individuals,” Lord GeorgeBrown said.

His resignation only two days before a crucial Parliamentary bv-election in Coventry caused immediate anger among leading Labour politicians. Ihe Labour Party is tipped to hold this seat, but if it should lose, its over-all Parliamentary majority ol only one will disappear. Noted for his blunt speaking. Lord GeorgeBrown has apparently become increasingly disillusioned with the I .ibour Party, ot which he was a long-devoted member. He distributed handbills al the age of eight. He was particularly upset lately when he was not selected as a member of the Labour Party delegation to the European Parliament. to which he considered he had a prior claim as a former Foreign Secretary. A member now of the House of Lords, Lord George-Brown was deputyleader of the 1-abour Party from 1960 to 1970. In 1963 he made an unsuccessful attempt for the leadership, and a year later became Secretary of State for Economic Affairs.