Michael Foot

Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 1913 – 3 March 2010) was a British politician who was Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist on Tribune and the Evening Standard. He co-wrote the 1940 polemic against appeasement of Adolf Hitler, Guilty Men, under a pseudonym.

Foot was a Member of Parliament (MP) for some 42 years, from 1945 to 1955 and 1960 to 1992. A passionate orator, and associated with the left wing of the Labour Party for most of his career, Foot was an ardent supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and of British withdrawal from the European Economic Community (EEC). He was appointed to Harold Wilson's Cabinet as Employment Secretary in 1974, and he later was Leader of the House of Commons from 1976 to 1979 under James Callaghan. He was also Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under Callaghan from 1976 to 1980.

Elected as a compromise candidate, Foot served as Labour leader and Leader of the Opposition from 1980 to 1983. Not particularly telegenic, he was nicknamed "Worzel Gummidge" for his rumpled appearance. A faction of the party broke away in 1981 to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Foot led Labour into the 1983 general election, when the party obtained its lowest share of the vote in 65 years and the fewest parliamentary seats since 1935, which remained the case until Labour's defeat at the 2019 general election. He resigned the party leadership following the election, and was succeeded as leader by Neil Kinnock.