Leslie Plummer
Encyclopedia
Sir Leslie Arthur Plummer, known to friends as Dick (2 June 1901 – 15 April 1963) was a British
farmer, newspaper executive and politician. He was in charge of the Overseas Food Corporation during the disastrous Tanganyika groundnut scheme
in the late 1940s; later he became a Labour Party
Member of Parliament
where he pioneered attempts to outlaw racial discrimination.
, British Guiana
, where his father was working. He was educated at Tottenham Grammar School in North London
, and first worked on the managerial staff of the Daily Herald from 1919. In 1922 he became General Manager for the New Leader
, a paper edited by H. N. Brailsford
as the party journal of the Independent Labour Party
. Plummer shared the left-wing sentiments of the ILP. In 1923 Plummer married Beatrice Lapsker
. They had no children.
Plummer was selected as Labour Party
candidate for Birmingham Edgbaston in the mid-1920s but gave up the candidacy in May 1927. He left the New Leader to set up The Miner, a journal for the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, in 1926.
group, and was a Director by 1941. In 1943 he was general manager of the company. Plummer prospered at the Daily Express group despite disagreeing on politics with the proprietor Lord Beaverbrook
because of his own skill as an administrator and Beaverbrook's known liking for talent-spotting among left-wingers.
as chairman-designate of the Overseas Food Corporation at the end of 1947. However the appointment was not confirmed until February 1948. The Corporation was created to take charge of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme
, a massive project to cultivate peanut
s on 325 million acres (1,320,000 km²) of scrubland in Tanganyika
. The scheme was well advanced by the time Plummer moved in, but he was an enthusiastic supporter. In January 1949 he went out to take personal charge of the scheme.
. However, by the summer of 1949 it was clear that the groundnut scheme was in trouble, having gone over budget. The Conservative Party
in the House of Commons
moved a motion to reduce the estimate in respect of the scheme on 27 July 1949. In November, one member of the Overseas Food Corporation board, A.J. Wakefield, became so critical of the management of the scheme that the Minister determined to dismiss him. Wakefield offered to resign only if Plummer did so as well; this was unacceptable to Strachey and Wakefield was dismissed. Plummer and Wakefield had a lengthy exchange of public statements, in which Wakefield accused Plummer of suppressing his suggestions.
Plummer was criticised in an editorial in The Times
for "failing to restore confidence (even among his staff) in the higher conduct of the scheme". His appointment was called into question by Alan Lennox-Boyd
because Strachey had been an old colleague of his in the Independent Labour Party. The next month, Plummer was also criticised by the Conservatives for giving a contract for air transport to the nationalised British Overseas Airways Corporation
rather than two private airlines which had submitted lower tenders, one of whom subsequently went out of business. A House of Lords
debate on the groundnut scheme on 14 December 1949 resulted in a vote of censure of the government, after the Marquess of Salisbury
attacked Plummer for being an entirely inappropriate choice to run it.
explaining that the role of the Overseas Food Corporation had changed fundamentally in practice compared with the basis on which Plummer had accepted it. The announcement was said to have "brought the biggest cheer from the Opposition benches that has been heard in the House of Commons for a long time".
. During the campaign, his local opponents brought up the large amount of money wasted on the Groundnuts scheme. Plummer responded by saying that all his money was invested in a 900 acre (4 km²) farm in Essex
and that although he despised the capitalist system, he had been "extremely fortunate under it and benefited from it". He won the seat easily in the general election
.
Plummer's maiden speech
on 4 March 1952 was on the subject of economic development in Africa. He made an early mark by proposing to make illegal the defamation of any body of persons, including a race. Plummer was critical of the policies of the Churchill
government in Kenya
where he felt the Mau Mau Uprising
was rooted in poverty and Kikuyu prisoners were mistreated. Another preoccupation of Plummer was slum landlords in his constituency.
. He claimed television companies would be tempted to use "the cheap stuff from America". During the controversy over the BBC
's broadcast of George Orwell
's 1984
in 1954, Plummer helped to sponsor a motion deploring the attacks on the BBC for putting on "programmes capable of appreciation by adult minds".
, Plummer was embarrassed when he turned up to give a speech in Hemel Hempstead
to find that the caretaker had not unlocked the hall. A second meeting nearby had been cancelled when only five people turned up. In June 1956 he was taken ill while in the House of Commons
, being attended to by Doctor MPs Dr Charles Hill
and Dr Barnett Stross
. He introduced the Racial Discrimination Bill in 1957, aiming to make discrimination on racial grounds illegal; the Bill was talked out by Conservative MP Ronald Bell
.
interest rate to the Daily Telegraph and Financial Times
. A judicial inquiry was set up but found no evidence of any impropriety.
, a far right-wing group, of being behind a rise of anti-semitism
in London. The party demanded he substantiate the charge or withdraw it. Plummer maintained his challenge. In August 1960 it was revealed that Plummer had received threatening phone calls and eventually a death threat in a letter from the "Adolf Hitler Memorial League". At the end of April 1960 the police put an armed guard on his flat in Hampstead
. The threatening letters continued.
in 1961, who issued an election address which attacked Plummer under the heading "Your Pro-Black M.P." and accused him of "[coming] down solidly on the side of coloured spivs and their vice dens as opposed to the white people of Deptford". Plummer sued for libel, and was awarded £
2,000 in damages.
, a Deputy Speaker, when he wrongly accused him of joining a pressure group for commercial radio. He also often took up issues of human rights abuses in Spain
. On 15 April 1963, Plummer died suddenly in New York City
, where he had gone for a lecture tour.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
farmer, newspaper executive and politician. He was in charge of the Overseas Food Corporation during the disastrous Tanganyika groundnut scheme
Tanganyika groundnut scheme
The Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme was a plan to cultivate tracts of what is now Tanzania with peanuts. It was a project of the British Labour government of Clement Attlee. It was abandoned in 1951 at considerable cost to the taxpayers when it did not become profitable...
in the late 1940s; later he became a Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
where he pioneered attempts to outlaw racial discrimination.
Newspaper business
Plummer was born in DemeraraDemerara
Demerara was a region in South America in what is now Guyana that was colonised by the Dutch in 1611. The British invaded and captured the area in 1796...
, British Guiana
British Guiana
British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.The area was originally settled by the Dutch at the start of the 17th century as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice...
, where his father was working. He was educated at Tottenham Grammar School in North London
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...
, and first worked on the managerial staff of the Daily Herald from 1919. In 1922 he became General Manager for the New Leader
Labour Leader
The Labour Leader was a British socialist newspaper published for almost one hundred years. It was later re-named New Leader and Socialist Leader, before finally taking the name Labour Leader again....
, a paper edited by H. N. Brailsford
H. N. Brailsford
Henry Noel Brailsford was the most prolific British left-wing journalist of the first half of the 20th century.The son of a Methodist preacher, he was born in Yorkshire and educated in Scotland, at the High School of Dundee...
as the party journal of the Independent Labour Party
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...
. Plummer shared the left-wing sentiments of the ILP. In 1923 Plummer married Beatrice Lapsker
Beatrice Plummer, Baroness Plummer
Beatrice Plummer, Baroness Plummer was a British peeress.- Family :She was the daughter of Meyer Lapsker and in 1923 married Sir Leslie Plummer. She and her husband both held titles in their own right.- Career :...
. They had no children.
Plummer was selected as Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
candidate for Birmingham Edgbaston in the mid-1920s but gave up the candidacy in May 1927. He left the New Leader to set up The Miner, a journal for the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, in 1926.
Beaverbrook newspapers
He became an executive of the Daily ExpressDaily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
group, and was a Director by 1941. In 1943 he was general manager of the company. Plummer prospered at the Daily Express group despite disagreeing on politics with the proprietor Lord Beaverbrook
Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook
William Maxwell "Max" Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook, Bt, PC, was a Canadian-British business tycoon, politician, and writer.-Early career in Canada:...
because of his own skill as an administrator and Beaverbrook's known liking for talent-spotting among left-wingers.
Overseas Food Corporation
Plummer left the Daily Express when he was named by John StracheyJohn St Loe Strachey
Evelyn John St Loe Strachey PC was a British Labour politician and writer.-Background and education:Born in Guildford, Surrey, the son of John Strachey, editor of The Spectator, he was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford. At Oxford, he was editor, with Robert Boothby, of the...
as chairman-designate of the Overseas Food Corporation at the end of 1947. However the appointment was not confirmed until February 1948. The Corporation was created to take charge of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme
Tanganyika groundnut scheme
The Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme was a plan to cultivate tracts of what is now Tanzania with peanuts. It was a project of the British Labour government of Clement Attlee. It was abandoned in 1951 at considerable cost to the taxpayers when it did not become profitable...
, a massive project to cultivate peanut
Peanut
The peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume or "bean" family , so it is not a nut. The peanut was probably first cultivated in the valleys of Peru. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing tall...
s on 325 million acres (1,320,000 km²) of scrubland in Tanganyika
Tanganyika
Tanganyika , later formally the Republic of Tanganyika, was a sovereign state in East Africa from 1961 to 1964. It was situated between the Indian Ocean and the African Great Lakes of Lake Victoria, Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika...
. The scheme was well advanced by the time Plummer moved in, but he was an enthusiastic supporter. In January 1949 he went out to take personal charge of the scheme.
Groundnuts scheme scandal
In the King's Birthday Honours list of June 1949, Plummer was appointed as a Knight BachelorKnight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
. However, by the summer of 1949 it was clear that the groundnut scheme was in trouble, having gone over budget. The Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
moved a motion to reduce the estimate in respect of the scheme on 27 July 1949. In November, one member of the Overseas Food Corporation board, A.J. Wakefield, became so critical of the management of the scheme that the Minister determined to dismiss him. Wakefield offered to resign only if Plummer did so as well; this was unacceptable to Strachey and Wakefield was dismissed. Plummer and Wakefield had a lengthy exchange of public statements, in which Wakefield accused Plummer of suppressing his suggestions.
Plummer was criticised in an editorial in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
for "failing to restore confidence (even among his staff) in the higher conduct of the scheme". His appointment was called into question by Alan Lennox-Boyd
Alan Lennox-Boyd, 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton
Alan Tindal Lennox-Boyd, 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton, CH, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician.-Background, education and military service:...
because Strachey had been an old colleague of his in the Independent Labour Party. The next month, Plummer was also criticised by the Conservatives for giving a contract for air transport to the nationalised British Overseas Airways Corporation
British Overseas Airways Corporation
The British Overseas Airways Corporation was the British state airline from 1939 until 1946 and the long-haul British state airline from 1946 to 1974. The company started life with a merger between Imperial Airways Ltd. and British Airways Ltd...
rather than two private airlines which had submitted lower tenders, one of whom subsequently went out of business. A House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
debate on the groundnut scheme on 14 December 1949 resulted in a vote of censure of the government, after the Marquess of Salisbury
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury
Robert Arthur James Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury, KG, PC , known as Viscount Cranborne from 1903 to 1947, was a British Conservative politician.-Background:...
attacked Plummer for being an entirely inappropriate choice to run it.
Resignation
Plummer announced his resignation in May 1950, with the new Minister of Food Maurice WebbMaurice Webb (politician)
Maurice Webb PC was a British Labour politician.Webb joined the Labour Party in 1922 as a teenager and was a well-known political journalist, including for the Daily Herald. From 1929 to 1935 he worked as the Party's propaganda officer...
explaining that the role of the Overseas Food Corporation had changed fundamentally in practice compared with the basis on which Plummer had accepted it. The announcement was said to have "brought the biggest cheer from the Opposition benches that has been heard in the House of Commons for a long time".
Deptford MP
In 1951 Plummer was adopted as Labour Party candidate for DeptfordDeptford (UK Parliament constituency)
Deptford was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Deptford district of South London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
. During the campaign, his local opponents brought up the large amount of money wasted on the Groundnuts scheme. Plummer responded by saying that all his money was invested in a 900 acre (4 km²) farm in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
and that although he despised the capitalist system, he had been "extremely fortunate under it and benefited from it". He won the seat easily in the general election
United Kingdom general election, 1951
The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held eighteen months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats...
.
Plummer's maiden speech
Maiden speech
A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament.Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country...
on 4 March 1952 was on the subject of economic development in Africa. He made an early mark by proposing to make illegal the defamation of any body of persons, including a race. Plummer was critical of the policies of the Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
government in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
where he felt the Mau Mau Uprising
Mau Mau Uprising
The Mau Mau Uprising was a military conflict that took place in Kenya between 1952 and 1960...
was rooted in poverty and Kikuyu prisoners were mistreated. Another preoccupation of Plummer was slum landlords in his constituency.
Television
Plummer firmly opposed commercial television, distrusting the motives of advertisersAdvertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
. He claimed television companies would be tempted to use "the cheap stuff from America". During the controversy over the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's broadcast of George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's 1984
Nineteen Eighty-Four (TV programme)
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a British television adaptation of the novel of the same name by George Orwell, originally broadcast on BBC Television in December 1954. The production proved to be hugely controversial, with questions asked in Parliament and many viewer complaints over its supposed...
in 1954, Plummer helped to sponsor a motion deploring the attacks on the BBC for putting on "programmes capable of appreciation by adult minds".
Racial discrimination
During the 1955 general election campaignUnited Kingdom general election, 1955
The 1955 United Kingdom general election was held on 26 May 1955, four years after the previous general election. It resulted in a substantially increased majority of 60 for the Conservative government under new leader and prime minister Sir Anthony Eden against Labour Party, now in their 20th year...
, Plummer was embarrassed when he turned up to give a speech in Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead is a town in Hertfordshire in the East of England, to the north west of London and part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2001 Census was 81,143 ....
to find that the caretaker had not unlocked the hall. A second meeting nearby had been cancelled when only five people turned up. In June 1956 he was taken ill while in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
, being attended to by Doctor MPs Dr Charles Hill
Charles Hill, Baron Hill of Luton
Charles Hill, Baron Hill of Luton PC was a British administrator, doctor and television executive.Charles Hill was born in Islington, London and was educated at St Olave's Grammar School in Southwark, London. He won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge where he gained a first class degree...
and Dr Barnett Stross
Barnett Stross
Sir Barnett Stross KBE was a British doctor and politician. He served twenty years as a Labour Party Member of Parliament, famously led the humanitarian campaign "Lidice Shall Live" and pushed for reforms in industry to protect workers-Early life:Barnett Stross was born to a Jewish family,...
. He introduced the Racial Discrimination Bill in 1957, aiming to make discrimination on racial grounds illegal; the Bill was talked out by Conservative MP Ronald Bell
Ronald Bell (UK politician)
Sir Ronald McMillan Bell, , QC , Knight Bachelor , was a Conservative Party Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom representing South Buckinghamshire from 1950 to 1974 and Beaconsfield from 1974 to 1982.-Family and education:The younger son of John Bell, Ronald was educated at Cardiff High...
.
Bank rate leak
In November 1957 Plummer caused uproar on the Conservative benches of the House of Commons by accusing the government of leaking changes to the Bank of EnglandBank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...
interest rate to the Daily Telegraph and Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
. A judicial inquiry was set up but found no evidence of any impropriety.
Police guard
Plummer accused the National Labour PartyNational Labour Party (UK, 1957)
The National Labour Party was a far right political party founded in 1957 by John Bean. The party campaigned on a platform of white nationalism, opposition to non-white immigration and anti-Semitism.-Formation:...
, a far right-wing group, of being behind a rise of anti-semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
in London. The party demanded he substantiate the charge or withdraw it. Plummer maintained his challenge. In August 1960 it was revealed that Plummer had received threatening phone calls and eventually a death threat in a letter from the "Adolf Hitler Memorial League". At the end of April 1960 the police put an armed guard on his flat in Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
. The threatening letters continued.
Libel case
The British National Party nominated candidates in local elections in DeptfordMetropolitan Borough of Deptford
The Metropolitan Borough of Deptford was a Metropolitan borough in the County of London between 1900 and 1965, when it became part of the London Borough of Lewisham along with the Metropolitan Borough of Lewisham....
in 1961, who issued an election address which attacked Plummer under the heading "Your Pro-Black M.P." and accused him of "[coming] down solidly on the side of coloured spivs and their vice dens as opposed to the white people of Deptford". Plummer sued for libel, and was awarded £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
2,000 in damages.
Death
In the 1960s Plummer became interested in promoting East-West trade. He was elected Vice-Chairman of the Parliamentary group on this subject in March 1961. He was forced to apologise to Sir Robert GrimstonRobert Grimston, 1st Baron Grimston of Westbury
Robert Villiers Grimston, 1st Baron Grimston of Westbury was a British Conservative politician.The eldest son of the Rev. and Hon...
, a Deputy Speaker, when he wrongly accused him of joining a pressure group for commercial radio. He also often took up issues of human rights abuses in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. On 15 April 1963, Plummer died suddenly in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he had gone for a lecture tour.