Doug Hoyle

Eric Douglas Harvey Hoyle, Baron Hoyle,, (17 February 1926 – 6 April 2024) was a British politician and life peer who was chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party from 1992 to 1997 and a lord-in-waiting from 1997 to 1999. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Nelson and Colne from 1974 to 1979 and Warrington North from 1981 to 1997.

House of Commons
Hoyle first stood for Parliament at Clitheroe in 1964, but came second. In 1970, he first fought Nelson and Colne, and was defeated by the Conservative incumbent David Waddington by 1,410 votes. He fought the seat again in February 1974, and reduced Waddington's margin to 177. He was finally elected at the general election of October 1974 for Nelson and Colne by 669 votes; this was the first Labour gain to be announced on election night.

Hoyle narrowly lost his seat at the general election of 1979, but returned to Parliament in 1981 when he saw off a strong challenge from Roy Jenkins in a traditionally safe Labour seat. This was a notable by-election in Warrington when enthusiasm for the newly created Social Democratic Party was at its peak. Constituency boundaries were redrawn for the general election of 1983, when he became MP for Warrington North.

In the 1992 Labour Party leadership election he voted for Bryan Gould one of only 12 MPs to do so.

House of Lords
Hoyle stepped down from the House of Commons at the general election of 1997, and on 14 May 1997, he was created a life peer as Baron Hoyle, of Warrington in the County of Cheshire in the 1997 Dissolution Honours. He retired from the Lords on 25 July 2023.

Other interests
Lord Hoyle served as chairman of Warrington Wolves Rugby League Club from 1999 to 2009. He was also a non-executive director of the major local employer Debt Free Direct. In 1957 he helped found Labour Friends of Israel. Hoyle received the Freedom of the Borough of Warrington on 11 November 2005.

Hoyle was awarded the Freedom of the City of Gibraltar, and in July 2008 received the Gibraltar Medallion of Honour (GMH).

In November 2010, Lord Hoyle was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Chester for his 'outstanding contribution to the Borough of Warrington'.

Personal
Eric Douglas Harvey Hoyle was born in Coppull, near Chorley, in Lancashire, on 17 February 1926.

Hoyle's son, Lindsay Hoyle, has been Member of Parliament for Chorley since 1997 and Speaker of the House of Commons since 2019.

Lord Hoyle died on 6 April 2024, at the age of 98.