Shirley Williams: a woman apart | The Spectator spectator.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from spectator.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The former Labour minister broke away from the party to form the Social Democrat Party. Her current party, the Liberal Democrats, announced her death. She was a former pupil of Talbot Heath School. In a statement Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey paid tribute to Baroness Williams of Crosby as a “true trailblazer” who had inspired millions. As a Labour minister, Lady Williams, served in the governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan in the 1970s rising to become education secretary. However in 1981, having become disillusioned with Labour’s drift to the left under Michael Foot, she was one of the original “Gang of Four” to leave the party to form the new centrist SDP.