Reginald Sorensen, Baron Sorensen

Who was Reginald Sorensen, Baron Sorensen?

Reginald William Sorensen, Baron Sorensen was a Unitarian minister and Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was a Member of Parliament for over thirty years between 1929 and 1964.

At the 1923 general election, he was an unsuccessful candidate in Southampton, coming fourth in the two-seat constituency. He stood again in the 1934 Lowestoft by-election, losing by 1,920 votes to the Conservative candidate, Pierse Loftus.

Sorensen was elected as MP for Leyton West at the 1929 general election, defeating the sitting Conservative MP James Cassels by a majority of 2,153. When Labour split at the 1931 general election, Sir Wilfrid Sugden retook the seat for the Conservatives with a majority of nearly 10,000.

At the Labour Party Congress in Hastings in 1933, Sorensen emerged as a major critic of the harsh means by which the British rule were striving to maintain their empire in India. 'The operation of Imperialism in India is in essence no different from the operations of Hitlerism,' he told the conference. 'We are appalled by what is happening to the Jews in Germany, but what has been happening in India is just as bad.'