Dingle Foot

Sir Dingle Mackintosh Foot, Q.C. (24 August 1905 – 18 June 1978) was a British lawyer and politician, born in Plymouth, Devon.

Education and career

He was educated at Bembridge School, a boys' independent school on the Isle of Wight, and at Balliol College, Oxford, and was called to the bar in 1930. From 1931 to 1945 he was Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Dundee. He was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Economic Warfare in Winston Churchill's wartime coalition, and a member of the British delegation to San Francisco Conference in 1945. At the 1945 election he lost his seat to Labour.

At the 1950 general election, Foot defended the formerly Liberal seat of North Cornwall, following the defection of its member Tom Horabin to Labour in 1947, but he lost to Harold Roper (Conservative).

Foot left the Liberals and joined the Labour Party in 1956. He was Labour MP for Ipswich, 1957–1970. He became Solicitor General in the government of Harold Wilson and was knighted and made a Privy Counsellor in 1964. In 1970 he was again defeated, this time by the Conservative Party. His publications included Despotism in Disguise (1937) and British Political Crises (1976).

In the late 40's and early 50's he was often seen on the BBC Current Affairs programme called 'In the News', where he was the moderator. Often appearing with him were Michael Foot and Sir Bob Boothby

Family

Foot's father, Isaac Foot, was a solicitor and founder of the Plymouth law firm, Foot and Bowden. Isaac Foot was an active member of the Liberal Party and was Liberal Member of Parliament for Bodmin in Cornwall 1922–1924 and 1929–1935 and a Lord Mayor of Plymouth.

His brother, Michael Foot, was a prominent figure in the Labour Party and was Leader of the Opposition from 1980 to 1983. He was also a brother of the Liberal politician John Foot (Lord Foot), and of Hugh Foot (Lord Caradon), a Governor of Cyprus and British Ambassador to the United Nations, whose son was the campaigning journalist Paul Foot.

Death

He died in a hotel in Hong Kong on 18 June 1978 after choking on a bone in a chicken sandwich.

Sources

• Time

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Dingle Foot

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Michael Marcus Edwin Scrymgeour	Member of Parliament for Dundee 1931–1945 With: Florence Horsbrugh	Succeeded by Thomas Cook John Strachey
Preceded by Richard Stokes	Member of Parliament for Ipswich 1957–1970	Succeeded by Ernle Money
Legal offices
Preceded by Sir Peter Rawlinson	Solicitor General for England and Wales 1964–1967	Succeeded by Arthur Irvine