Obituary: Freda Corbet

TORQUEMADA or the 'Tiny Tyrant' she may have been in County Hall (just two of her more moderate nicknames), but Councillor Ellis Hillman's severe and harsh if well- written and well-informed assessment of Freda Corbet (obituary, 13 November) needs to be challenged, writes Tam Dalyell. Hillman dismisses the parliamentary work of Corbet, my colleague in the Parliamentary Labour Party for 12 years, as 'essentially an adjunct to her work at County Hall'.

This is not quite how it looked to me as Dick Crossman's Man Friday PPS when he was Minister of Housing. Dame Evelyn Sharpe, the Permanent Secretary, wanted certain decisions in relation to Rachmanism and rent abuse in London in November 1964. Crossman told me: 'Arrange a meeting with Freda Corbet, although she thinks I'm poison (going back to Bevanite days).' Corbet was delighted to be asked to see Crossman in his office and the Bevanite hatchet did not surface. Crossman felt that Corbet spoke for the people of Camberwell, on subjects she knew intimately both on housing, 1963-66, and, 1968- 70, on social work and health when he was the Secretary of State responsible. Corbet wielded more actual influence in Whitehall than any number of speeches and parliamentary questions. By the criteria of influence on policy as opposed to public pronouncement she was a highly effective MP.

Hillman says that the views of Nye Bevan on German rearmament were beyond the pale for Corbet. I suspect it was something rather different that was really beyond the pale in 1964-70 - that Nye's widow, the arts minister Jennie Lee never gave any credit to Corbet, Herbert Morrison, Sir Isaac Hayward and their friends who had been responsible, against great odds, for gifting LCC land and monies to build the National Theatre. Even some of her opponents concede that we owe the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room, the Hayward Gallery and the completion of the Royal Festival Hall to the Corbet regime. Certainly that was the view of the late George Strauss, who was in a position to know.

As a young MP I had to stand in at short notice for the housing minister of state, in Camberwell. Asking the then Attorney-General Elwyn Jones for advice as MP for West Ham I opined that the LCC/ GLC transition politics seemed as complex as those of Wales. 'Not the Welsh, dear boy. Much much worse. It's Guelph versus Ghibelline and the Labour factional quarrels go beyond the grave.' The shade of Freda Corbet will be revolving in her grave this month when the Japanese have taken over County Hall.