Leslie Spriggs

Who was Leslie Spriggs?

Leslie Spriggs was a British Labour politician and trade unionist, MP for St Helens from 1958 until 1983.

Born in Bolton, Spriggs served in the Navy and then worked on the railways. It was whilst he was working for the railways that he became involved in socialism and the trade union movement. He joined the Labour Party in 1935, and the National Union of Railwaymen in 1937, becoming "president of the NUR North West district council political section, as well as vice president of the industrial section" during the early 1970s.

Until elected a Member of Parliament, Spriggs lived his adult life in Thornton, Lancashire and was a railways goods guard. In 1955 he unsuccessfully contested his local constituency, North Fylde, a Conservative safe seat. Three years later, he was chosen as the Labour candidate in the St Helens by-election following the resignation of Hartley Shawcross. He won the seat, which he would retain until its abolition in 1983, and moved to St. Helens. Following the seat's abolition he retired from politics, due to age and ill health, and moved back to Thornton. He had decided to retire in 1981, saying that being a MP was "a little too much when you've reached 72".