John Platts-Mills

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John Faithful Fortescue Platts-Mills, QC (4 October 1906 – 26 October 2001) was a British barrister and left-wing politician. He was the Labour Party Member of Parliament for Finsbury from 1945 to 1950.

Early life and career[]

Born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1906 to John Mills, a prosperous businessman, and Daisy Platts, a doctor.[1][2] Platts-Mills was educated at Ocean Bay School, Port Underwood, Marlborough, from 1917 to 1918,[3] and at Nelson College from 1919 to 1924.[4] He graduated with a first-class honours degree in law from Victoria University College in Wellington where he had been an excellent sportsman in track athletics, boxing and as a rower. In 1929, he won a Rhodes Scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford.[1]

After graduating from Oxford University, he was called to the Bar from the Inner Temple in 1932, then worked as a barrister in London.

Platts-Mills belonged to the ultra-conservative English Mistery group and his flat at 2, Paper Buildings, Inner Temple, was the Mistery's address and meeting place for a time. The proposed Hoare–Laval Pact permanently altered his political outlook[5] and in 1936 he joined the Labour Party. Mills was a friend of Olympic gold medallist and anti-fascist Lewis Clive, who died fighting against Nationalist forces in 1938 during the Spanish Civil War.[6] Platts-Mills was himself opposed to the Labour Party's policy of non-intervention.[7]

On the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the Royal Air Force and was commissioned as pilot officer in June 1940.[8] However, he was asked to leave,[7] and it was suspected that this was due to his communist sympathies. After the Soviet Union was invaded by Germany, the military was more willing to accept communists. According to Platts-Mills own account, Sir Stafford Cripps introduced him to prime minister Winston Churchill, who told him: "I have been teaching the British since 1918 that the Russians eat their young. For the sake of the war effort, take as much money as you need and change that public perception of them."[1] During the later part of the war, Platts-Mills volunteered to work as a Bevin boy in the coal mines. Then 38, he worked in the mines for 18 months.

Political career[]

At the 1945 general election he was elected as the Labour MP for Finsbury. In the Commons, Platts-Mills emerged as one of a small number of MPs with pro-Soviet sympathies. He told Simon Hattenstone of The Guardian in 2001, not long before he died: "I was a good constituency chap."[9]

Platts-Mills organised a petition in support of Pietro Nenni and the Italian Socialist Party in its general election campaign which was signed by 36 MPs. It was contentious because Nenni's party was in alliance with the Italian Communist Party. Almost all of the MPs retracted their support when asked to do so, but Platts-Mills was the exception.[1] He was already under investigation by the Party's National Executive Committee and was expelled from the Labour Party in April 1948 after he submitted a statement which was found unacceptable. Officially, the Labour Party had given its support to the rival, non-communist aligned, Socialist Unity alliance.[7] His expulsion led to the formation in 1949 of the Labour Independent Group which gained support from four other Soviet-sympathising ex-Labour MPs: Konni Zilliacus, D. N. Pritt, Geoffrey Bing and William Warbey. Platts-Mills stood as an Independent Labour candidate in the new Shoreditch and Finsbury constituency in the 1950 general election but only came third. Platts-Mills was opposed to NATO and claimed that the United States had too much power in Europe. He was readmitted to the Labour Party in 1969 after previous attempts in 1964 and 1966 were unsuccessful.[7]

Later legal career[]

He returned to his legal career and was made a Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1964.[1] "A master of courtroom theatre.. [whose] clashes with the Bench entered into legal legend",[1] Platts-Mills was defence counsel to many clients, including the Great Train Robbers at their appeal[7] and Ronnie Kray. Of the Kray Twins, who were found guilty of the murders of George Cornell and Jack McVitie in 1969, Platt-Mills later said: "I genuinely believed they were not guilty".[10]

Personal life[]

In 1936, he married artist Janet Cree. He was the father of a forester Tim Platts-Mills, a Lonrho director Jonathan Platts-Mills, Thomas Platts-Mills, Barney Platts-Mills, a wood sculptor Benjamin Platts-Mills and Mark Platts-Mills QC.

His wife died in 1992. Platts-Mills himself died on 26 October 2001.[7]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "John Platts-Mills". The Telegraph. 26 October 2001. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  2. ^ "Obituary: John Platts-Mills". NZ Herald. 2 November 2001. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  3. ^ Harlen, Jonathan (1987). The School at Ocean Bay. New Zealand: Cape Catley.
  4. ^ Nelson College Old Boys' Register, 1856–2006, 6th edition
  5. ^ Sedley, Stephen (11 November 1999). "In Judges' Lodgings". London Review of Books. 21 (22). Archived from the original on 8 August 2008.
  6. ^ Farman, Chris; Rose, Valery; Woolley, Liz (2015). No Other Way: Oxfordshire and the Spanish Civil War 1936-39. London: Oxford International Brigade Memorial Committee. pp. 63=64.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Jeger, Lena (27 October 2001). "John Platts-Mills". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  8. ^ "No. 34887". The London Gazette. 2 July 1940. p. 4022.
  9. ^ Hattenstone, Simon (2 January 2001). "Soldier of fortune". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  10. ^ Morton, James (4 April 2019). "The trial that finally jailed the Krays". The Times. London. Retrieved 11 February 2021. (subscription required)

References[]

Further reading[]

  • Edmond, Martin (2017). The Expatriates. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books. pp. 182–251. ISBN 978-19885-33179.
  • John Platts-Mills QC: Muck, Silk and Socialism - Recollections of a Left-wing Queen's Counsel. Autobiography, published posthumously in 2002 by Paper Publishing, Oldwood Cottage, Wedmore, Somerset BS28 4XW. ISBN 0-9539949-0-2. xvi + 687 pages.

External links[]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
George Savile Woods 		Member of Parliament for Finsbury
1945–1950 		constituency abolished
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