Maverick Eurosceptic Labour MP who fought hard for the fishing industry in his Great Grimsby constituency
The Labour politician Austin Mitchell got his timing wrong. Had he entered the Commons 10 years before he did, he might have knuckled down and become a minister. As it was, he spent most of his first 20 years in parliament sitting in opposition, by which time his chance had probably passed, and the remaining 18 years, it sometimes seemed, commenting adversely and often publicly about the party and its leadership.
His sense of humour, which he thought of as bluff and bracing, often seemed to be somewhat awry, too. When he scoffed in 2014 that his constituency, Great Grimsby, in Lincolnshire, was so solidly Labour that “a raving, alcoholic sex paedophile” could get elected as the party’s candidate, he seemed surprised that anyone might take offence. But it was in truth only the latest in a trail of slightly off-pitch jokes made by a clever man and a frustrated politician.