Tributes to longest-serving council leader
NCJMEDIATributes have been paid to Newcastle City Council's longest-serving leader, Lord Beecham, who has died aged 81.
He was first elected as a Labour councillor for the Benwell area of the city in May 1967, when he was 22, and remained on the local authority for 55 years, holding the title of leader from 1977 until 1994.
That year also saw him knighted and he was appointed to the House of Lords as a life peer in 2010.
Karen Kilgour, the current head of the Labour-led authority, said he had "changed the face of Newcastle and helped make it the great city it is today".
Lord Beecham was last elected in the Benwell and Scotswood ward in 2019 and announced his retirement due to ill health in March 2022.
He died on Thursday having been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, according to Local Democracy Reporting Service.
'Always on their side'
Kilgour said Beecham was "one of the most influential politicians of the last 50 years".
"A kind, hard-working man with a wonderful sense of humour, he was respected across the political divide," she said.
Having played a "huge role in the Labour Party at a national level", Kilgour said it was probably at a local level where he would "most fondly be remembered".
In that capacity, she said, Lord Beecham had represented the people of Benwell and later Scotswood with "dedication".
"He was always on their side, fighting their corner.
"It is terribly sad, but we should also be grateful for the life of Jeremy Beecham, a man who literally changed the face of Newcastle and helped make it the great city it is today."
'Y'alreet Jeremy'
Born in 1944, Lord Beecham was educated at Newcastle's Royal Grammar School and at University College, Oxford, where he obtained a first-class honours degree in law before becoming a solicitor.
After unsuccessfully standing for Parliament in Tynemouth in 1970, he went on to chair the city council's social services committee from 1973 to 1977.
He then became the chair of the Association of Metropolitan Authorities in 1991 and led the foundation of the Local Government Association in 1997, also serving as its first chairman.
Upon retirement, Sir Keir Starmer called him a "giant of the Labour movement".
Lord Beecham's children, Richard and Sara, described him as the "very best of fathers".
"Dad loved this city, in particular his ward of Benwell and Scotswood, and he dedicated his life to improving the lives of others here," they said.
"His dedication to public service was remarkable.
"You only had to walk through the city with him to see what affection so many people had for him. At St James' Park we were regularly greeted with fond shouts of 'y'alreet Jeremy', which he loved."
