Baroness Williams of Crosby – better known as Shirley Williams – was one of the disenchanted ex-Labour Cabinet ministers who became the Gang of Four founders of the breakaway and short-lived Social Democratic Party.
She was a busy, breathless, tousle-haired intellectual who acquired an unwanted reputation for missing trains or going to the wrong venue for meetings. That was how she became affectionately known as Shilly Shally Shirley.
Once Lady Astor told her: “You will never get anywhere in politics with hair like that.”
And although in her early political life she surprisingly regarded herself as left-of-centre in Labour terms, she came to be reviled by the party’s left who denounced her as a traitor to the movement after her defection to the SDP.
Lady Williams of Crosby obituary
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Obituary: Shirley Williams
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Mr Smith said one property in Bitterne had been empty for years and was infested in pigeons. Alan Whitehead, Labour MP for Southampton Test, added: I know that bringing empty homes into use is something the council have been working on. However, the housing charity Shelter has said there is a bigger fundamental problem with affordable housing in the UK. I d like to see the government give councils the funding they need to provide decent affordable homes. A city council spokesperson said the authority tried to prevent homelessness. They added: Where this is not possible we provide self-contained temporary accommodation – not Bed and Breakfast - whilst a permanent home can be found.