Michael Mackintosh Foot Biography and Timeline

Birth of Michael Mackintosh Foot

Birth of Michael Mackintosh Foot

Wadham College

Studies Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Wadham College, Oxford.

Role range: 1931-1934

Oxford Union

Serves as President of the Oxford Union while developing as a political speaker.

Role range: 1931-1934

Education

Graduates from Oxford University where he was President of the Union

Oxford University

Graduates from Oxford University where he was President of the Union

Birkenhead

Works as a shipping clerk and sees unemployment and poverty on Merseyside.

Role range: 1934-1935

Election

In his election address Foot contended that "the armaments race in Europe must be stopped now". Foot joins the Labour Party and first stands for Parliament at the age of 22 in the 1935 general election, when he contests Monmouth

Labour Party

Joins the Labour Party after moving away from his Liberal family tradition.

Role range: 1935-2010

Tribune

Joins the left-wing weekly Tribune when it was set up in early 1937 to support the Unity Campaign, an attempt to secure an anti-fascist United Front between Labour and the parties to its left

Unity Campaign

Joins the left-wing weekly Tribune when it was set up in early 1937 to support the Unity Campaign, an attempt to secure an anti-fascist United Front between Labour and the parties to its left

Evening Standard

Works for Lord Beaverbrook's Evening Standard before becoming its wartime editor.

Role range: 1938-1945

Military Service

Volunteers for military service but is rejected because of chronic asthma.

Role range: 1939-1945

Cato

Under the pen-name "Cato" he and two other Beaverbrook journalists (Frank Owen, editor of the Standard, and Peter Howard of the Daily Express) publish Guilty Men, a Left Book Club book attacking the appeasement policy of the Chamberlain Government

Cato

Uses the pen-name Cato while co-writing Guilty Men against appeasement.

Role range: 1940-1940

Guilty Men

Publishes a bestselling attack on appeasement under the shared pseudonym Cato.

Role range: 1940-1940

Editor

Beaverbrook appoints Foot editor of the Evening Standard at the age of 28.

Daily Mirror Defence

Defends press freedom after government pressure against the Daily Mirror during wartime.

Role range: 1942-1942

Maiden Speech

Begins his Commons career after winning Plymouth Devonport for Labour.

Role range: 1945-1955

Member of Parliament

Elected Member of Parliament for Plymouth, Devonport

Daily Herald

Joins the Daily Herald as a columnist, jointly owned by the TUC and Odhams Press, and was effectively an official Labour Party paper

Evening Standard

Leaves the Evening Standard and moves toward the Daily Herald and parliamentary politics.

Role range: 1938-1945

Keep Left

Co-authors Keep Left, a pamphlet associated with Labour's left-wing foreign policy debate.

Role range: 1947-1947

Editor

Rejoins Tribune as editor from 1948 to 1952

Tribune

Rejoins Tribune as editor from 1948 to 1952

Press Monopoly

Uses Tribune to criticise concentrated press ownership and defend independent socialist journalism.

Role range: 1948-1952

Marriage

Michael Foot marries film-maker, author and feminist historian Jill Craigie

General Election - General Election

Retains Plymouth Devonport for Labour at the 1950 general election.

Role range: 1945-1955

General Election Election Outcome

General election outcome recorded for Michael Mackintosh Foot: Retains Plymouth Devonport for Labour at the 1950 general election.

Role range: 1945-1955

General Election Government

Government context for this general election: Retains Plymouth Devonport for Labour at the 1950 general election.

Role range: 1945-1955

General Election

Retains Plymouth Devonport for Labour at the 1950 general election.

Role range: 1945-1955

General Election

Retains Plymouth Devonport for Labour at the 1951 general election.

Role range: 1945-1955

Tribune

Ends his first post-war period as editor of Tribune.

Role range: 1948-1952

Election Defeat

Loses Plymouth Devonport to Conservative Joan Vickers at the general election.

Role range: 1945-1955

Editor

Rejoins Tribune as editor from 1955 to 1960

Tribune

Rejoins Tribune as editor from 1955 to 1960

Hungarian Revolution

Condemns the Soviet crushing of the Hungarian Revolution through Tribune.

Role range: 1955-1960

Suez Crisis

Uses Tribune to oppose the British government's Suez intervention.

Role range: 1955-1960

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

Becomes a founder member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Role range: 1957-2010

The Pen and the Sword

Publishes The Pen and the Sword, a study of Jonathan Swift.

Role range: 1957-1957

Aldermaston March

Addresses anti-nuclear marchers before the early Aldermaston protest sets out.

Role range: 1957-2010