Farewell Frank Field: An awkward, one-off, bloody-minded outsider until the end

Modern politics could use more men like the former Labour minister and poverty campaigner who became my friend, writes Andrew Grice

Former Labour minister and cross-bench peer Frank Field has died at the age of 81 (PA)

I’m still here – I didn’t expect to be,” Frank Field told me with a smile, just before Christmas, when I asked him how he was.

Even when he was dying of cancer, he could joke about it. The private man was very different from the dour, ascetic public exterior of the former Labour minister and lifelong campaigner on poverty and welfare reform, who has died aged 81.

To say that Field wasn’t a conventional politician is an understatement. During his 60 years in the Labour Party, he was an honorary independent, never afraid to speak his mind. Tony Blair labelled him “a bit awkward” but that was the whole point of him. David Blunkett, the former Labour cabinet minister, got it right today, calling him a “loveable maverick, a one-off”.