George Strauss

Who was George Strauss?

George Russell Strauss, Baron Strauss PC was a long-serving British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament for 46 years and was Father of the House of Commons from 1974 to 1979.

Strauss was the son of the Conservative MP Arthur Strauss, who later joined the Labour Party. George Strauss was educated at Rugby School, where the hostile treatment experienced by him and other Jewish boys left him as a vehement supporter of racial equality. He became a metal merchant and a leading member of the London County Council, on which his wife also served.

Strauss' first parliamentary contest was in Lambeth North in 1924, when he lost by just 29 votes; however, he gained the seat in 1929. He lost it in Labour's landslide defeat of 1931, but regained it in a 1934 by-election. In 1939 Strauss was expelled from the Labour Party for supporting the 'Popular Front' movement of Stafford Cripps, whom he had served as Parliamentary Private Secretary.

Strauss was parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of Transport 1945-47 and was the Minister of Supply from 1947 to 1951. After boundary changes, he became MP for Vauxhall in 1950, which he represented until 1979.