Arthur Stanley Newens (4 February 1930 – 2 March 2021) was a British Labour Co-operative politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) and later as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP).
Early Life and Education: Born in Bethnal Green, London, he was raised in North Weald, Essex. He was educated at Buckhurst Hill County High School and graduated in History from University College London.
Political Career: Newens joined the Labour Party in 1949. A conscientious objector during the Korean War, he performed alternative national service as a coalminer in Staffordshire. He worked as a history teacher before entering Parliament.
He was elected MP for Epping in 1964, serving until 1970 when he lost the seat to Norman Tebbit. He returned to Parliament as the first MP for the newly created constituency of Harlow in February 1974, holding the seat until 1983 when he lost it in the Conservative landslide. He subsequently served as a Member of the European Parliament for London Central from 1984 to 1999.
Political Positions: Newens was a prominent figure on the left wing of the Labour Party. He was a member of the Socialist Review Group led by Tony Cliff (leaving in 1959), a campaigner against the Vietnam War, an opponent of NATO, and a supporter of nuclear disarmament. He served as chair of the Movement for Colonial Freedom (later Liberation), president of the London Co-operative Society, and vice chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party Foreign Affairs Group. He was also chair and deputy leader of the Labour Group of MEPs.
Other Work: An active trade unionist and local historian, Newens wrote numerous pamphlets and books, including A History of North Weald Bassett and Its People (1985), a study of writer Arthur Morrison (2008), and his autobiography In Quest of a Fairer Society: My Life and Politics (2013). He served as president of the Socialist History Society from 2012.
Personal Life: He married Ann Sherratt in 1954; they had two children before her death in 1962. He remarried Sandra Firth in 1966, with whom he had three children. Newens died from heart disease at his home in Harlow on 2 March 2021, aged 91.
