The veteran Labour MP Sir Tony Lloyd was hailed as a “true statesman” who “fought for what was right and just”, in a moving requiem mass in Manchester.
Lloyd, who died last month aged 73, was remembered for his “unwavering belief in social justice and equality” in a tribute read by Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner.
Senior members of the party including Gordon Brown, Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham gathered at St Hugh of Lincoln RC church in Stretford for the service on Friday.
Lloyd, one of the longest-serving MPs in recent history, had been receiving treatment for an “aggressive and untreatable” form of blood cancer before he died on 17 January.
He represented the Greater Manchester region for more than 40 years, entering the Commons at the 1983 general election and serving until his death.
Members of Lloyd’s family paid tribute to the man they knew as Joe as they asked mourners to “hold him in your hearts, as he will for ever be in ours”.
Rayner, the MP for nearby Ashton-under-Lyne, described her colleague as a “true statesman” who was “fuelled by an unwavering belief in social justice and equality”.
She said Lloyd was well known for his ability to work across party and county lines and his legacy would “inspire future generations of leaders”.
Brown said Lloyd possessed “essential qualities” that helped him be elected as chair of the parliamentary Labour party under three separate leaders.
“This task was to manage what can sometimes be an unruly mob and, as Keir is finding out, quite self-opinionated,” Brown said, to laughter. “I joked with Tony that his job as chair was far more difficult and challenging than mine as leader because among the essential qualities this job needed was a stamina and perseverance of a natural conciliator, and Tony had that quality in abundance; the tact and diplomacy of a saint, and he had that too in spades; the humanity and qualities of a social worker, and that was Tony at his best; and the courage to tell people like me when I had got it wrong – and that he had to do on, let’s say, quite a few occasions.”
Brown said the role also required the skills of their “mutual friend” Sir Alex Ferguson, the ex-Manchester United manager: “Flattery, encouragement and then threat.”
At the time of Lloyd’s death, the speaker of the Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, said the country had lost “one of the nicest, most effective MPs”.
A byelection is being held in Lloyd’s Rochdale constituency on 29 February. Labour withdrew support for its candidate, Azhar Ali, last week after it emerged he had made a series of inflammatory and unfounded remarks about Israel and Gaza.
