
Labour peer Lord Lipsey found dead after swimming in River Wye
Officers were called to the village of Glasbury on Monday after concerns about the safety of a man who was last seen swimming in the river.
Dyfed Powys police said on Thursday the body of the 77-year-old was pulled from the water on Tuesday after a multi-agency search.
Lipsey previously worked as a journalist and was a Downing Street adviser under then prime minister Jim Callaghan.
A police spokesperson said:
'His next of kin have been informed and our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.
'They have asked for their privacy to be respected.'
Lipsey entered the Lords in 1999. Lord McFall of Alcluith, the Lord Speaker, said the upper chamber extended its 'condolences to the noble lord's family and friends'.
Lipsey, originally from Dorset, lived in Powys and was a patron of the Glasbury Arts festival.
In the 1970s, he served as a special adviser to the Labour minister and diarist Anthony Crosland and on the staff at 10 Downing Street under Callaghan, later Lord Callaghan.
Lipsey also worked for the Guardian, the Sunday Times, New Society and the Economist and co-founded the short-lived Sunday Correspondent in 1988.
He was awarded a life peerage by Tony Blair in 1999.
The peer was also a fan of greyhound racing, chairing the British Greyhound Racing Board, now called the Greyhound Board of Great Britain, between 2004 and 2009 and worked to get dogs rehomed at the end of their careers.
Keir Starmer said: 'David was loved and respected by so many. Whether it was his early years as a researcher and adviser, or his quarter of a century in the House of Lords, he worked tirelessly for what he believed in.
'He will be sorely missed by all who were fortunate to know him, in parliament and beyond. My thoughts are with his wife, Margaret, and their family and friends.'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Police pay rise: Officers' salary to increase 4.2% in England and Wales
Police officers are set to get a 4.2 per cent pay rise for police officers in England and Wales. The increased salary, which has been approved by the government, will apply to all ranks up to and including chief superintendent. It will also be backed by £120 million of extra funding from the Home Office. The Police Federation said the pay award 'barely treads water' with the current rate of inflation and equates to 'a Big Mac per shift'. The pay rise puts the starting salary for a police constable at £31,163, typically going up to £50,257 after six years, while the average salary for a chief superintendent will be £98,500. Allowances for on-call, away from home and hardship will increase by £10 and London weighting will go up by 4.2 per cent. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: 'Our brave police officers work day and night, often making enormous sacrifices, to keep us safe. 'This government is proud to back them in doing so and today's pay award is a clear signal of our gratitude, and our determination to ensure they are properly rewarded for their service.' Brian Booth, deputy national chairman of the Police Federation, said: 'Today's pay award of 4.2% barely treads water, with inflation currently at 4.1%. 'We note that chief constables argued for a pay rise of just 3.8%. We welcome the government's decision to reject that position and instead listen to the strong case we have been making on behalf of police officers across the country. 'However, after more than a decade of real terms pay cuts, this award does little to reverse the long-term decline in officers' living standards or address the crisis policing faces. 'A pay rise worth the price of a Big Mac per shift won't stop record levels of resignations, record mental health absences, or the record number of assaults on officers.' The federation, which represents more than 145,000 officers, will now ask its members whether they want to accept or reject the award. The National Police Chiefs' Council's lead for pay and conditions, Philip Wells, said: 'We are pleased that the pay review body recognised the evidence that was presented by chief constables and the pay award that has been announced today is what we believe our officers deserve and reflects the nature of the work they are required to undertake to keep our streets safe. 'Today the Home Secretary also announced an extra £120 million towards funding the pay award. 'With more than 85% of police spend being on pay costs, it is vitally important that additional costs for pay are fully funded if we are to maintain services and be able to continue to invest in areas such as neighbourhood policing and technology.'


The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on statues: new monuments reflect changing values and reinvigorate the public realm
Efforts to ensure that modern values are reflected in public sculpture began well before the Black Lives Matter protests five years ago. Those demonstrations saw the statue of the Bristol slave trader Edward Colston dragged from its pedestal and dumped in the harbour, while multiple Confederate monuments were removed from cities in the southern US. Statues in Britain have gradually reflected evolving social values. A statue of the suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst was unveiled in Westminster in 1930, two years after women were finally granted the vote on equal terms to men. Nelson Mandela joined Winston Churchill in Parliament Square in 2007. The nurse Mary Seacole became the first named black, Caribbean woman to be honoured with a UK statue in 2016. In the same year, the Monumental Welsh Women campaign was established. It set itself a target of five statues, and has only one to go. But are statues of individuals out of step with democratic sensibilities? Rather than raise subscriptions to cast models of great men and women from the past, contemporary backers of public art often opt for different styles and forms – for example, the giant statue of an anonymous black woman that was recently displayed in New York's Times Square. Called Grounded in the Stars, this was the work of a British artist, Thomas J Price. In other cases, enthusiasts continue to fundraise for traditional, lifesize statues of individuals. While the vast majority of such statues in Britain represent men (many of them aristocrats), the highest-profile recent campaigns have been for memorials of women. According to the Public Statues and Sculpture Association, there are currently 147 statues of named, non-royal women. Among them is Jane Taylor, who wrote the lullaby Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, and since last year has stood with her sister Ann on the high street in Colchester, Essex. Another is Mary Anning, the pioneering fossil hunter, who can be seen striding towards the seafront with her dog in Lyme Regis, Dorset. In Brighton, the Mary Clarke statue appeal aims to erect a statue of this overlooked women's suffrage campaigner by the same sculptor, Denise Dutton. Clarke, who was Mrs Pankhurst's sister, died on Christmas Day 1910 after being force-fed in prison and has no memorial anywhere. Permanence can be problematic: statues erected in one era may celebrate traits later condemned. But it is refreshing to see the achievements of women celebrated, and municipal statuary become more representative of a diverse nation – and less dominated by the aristocratic and imperialist values of the past. Campaigns for new outdoor monuments are generally spearheaded by those with a strong commitment to a place as well as a person. When they succeed, these projects can boost confidence in the local public realm. Amid a tortuous debate about the statue of Cecil Rhodes in Oxford – which remains in place in spite of a lengthy campaign to remove it – Bristol's anti-Colston protesters proved that direct action can decisively alter the built environment. It also sparked an unprecedented public reckoning with the legacies of slavery in Britain in the months after – with the removal or alteration of almost 70 tributes to enslavers and colonialists. One that went was a statue of slaveholder Robert Milligan in east London. Next year, its spot will be filled with a sculpture by the artist Khaleb Brooks. Called The Wake, the bronze shell will stand as a memorial to transatlantic slavery's millions of victims. Symbolic change isn't a substitute for tackling today's inequalities. But it's still meaningful.


BBC News
6 hours ago
- BBC News
Green Party members start choosing new leadership
Voting has opened in the Green Party of England and Wales leadership party co-leader Adrian Ramsay has teamed up with another MP colleague, Ellie Chowns, after Carla Denyer decided not to stand for party's 60,000-strong membership will choose between the Ramsay and Chowns ticket and the party's current deputy leader Zack Polanski, who is also a member of the London who had joined the party before midnight on Thursday can vote on the leadership between now and Saturday, 30 August, with results announced on Tuesday, 2 September. Ramsay and Chowns, a former MEP, are emphasising their "decades" of political experience and encouraging members to back them "to turn values into power".Self-described "eco-populist" Polanski has instead urged members to vote for change, with "bold leadership that can cut through" on the national stage, from a gay, Jewish leader who can help the party to "scale up and diversify".Polanski characterises the current leadership as timid, failing to take the fight to Labour and Reform UK - and of communicating in a way that "has not cut through in the way we should".Ramsay and Chowns have accused Polanski of risking the party's achievements so far, which include quadrupling their number of MPs, from one to four, and doubling their councillors over the past four years, with a "polarising, strident" a lengthy thread on X, Ramsay also suggested Jeremy Corbyn and Zara Sultana's new as-yet-unnamed party "blows Zack Polanski's leadership pitch out of the water".Drama has flared a couple of times during campaigning, notably during an LBC interview where Ramsay struggled to say whether he liked Polanski for an agonisingly long initially said "we've worked together" before being pressed for a yes or no answer and adding: "I've enjoyed working with Zack over the last few years, of course".As interviewer Iain Dale responded "ouch", Polanski said: "I really like Adrian, so that does hurt."Pressed further, Ramsay said: "I've worked with Zack effectively, I like working with Zack, I like Zack, I don't understand what the issue is here."The Green Party holds leadership elections every two years, but last year's scheduled poll was delayed so as not to clash with the 2024 general some other parties, the leader or co-leader has less of a role in setting policy, which is voted in by the membership, and is more focused on vision, strategy and communication, "ensuring a coherent and compelling message".A Green Party spokesperson said: "Since nominations opened, the contest has engaged party members and the wider public through a series of in-person and online hustings, and media appearances."Now, paid-up party members will be electing a leadership team to take the party to a new level, offering real hope and real change as the old, failed two-party system fragments."Green members will also vote in a deputy leadership election this month, choosing either one or two candidates from a list of nine, depending on whether a single leader or two co-leaders are elected. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.