Ronnie Fearn, Lord Fearn, who has died aged 90, was the former MP for Southport, Merseyside, and a most unusual politician. He succeeded in winning elections despite confounding almost all the expectations of modern formulaic politics and, without being a conventional intellectual Liberal, he was the ultimate party loyalist and committed activist.
Before joining the Liberal party in Southport in early 1961, he had written to the local newspaper complaining about the Conservative council cutting grants to youth organisations – a cause to which he had a lifelong commitment – and he stated then that he only had “slight political leanings”. These nevertheless became enough to draw him into 60 years of Liberal campaigning. He won his local ward, Norwood, for the Southport council in 1963 and he held this seat through every change of name and local government reorganisation for 52 years.
Fearn was born in Southport, the son of Martha (nee Hodge) and James Fearn, a painter and decorator. He attended the King George V grammar school, leaving at the age of 16 to work for Williams Deacon’s Bank (later merged to become Williams and Glyn’s Bank, and later still the Royal Bank of Scotland), a career he continued until elected to parliament in 1987. He married Joyce Dugan in 1955 and they had a daughter, Susan, and a son, Martin.
He became a member of Southport council at a time when the Liberals controlled the council in coalition with Labour. At the 1970 general election, the prospective Liberal candidate in Southport withdrew at the last minute and Fearn was persuaded, without much difficulty, to stand. In a disastrous election for his party nationally, he managed to increase the Liberal vote by 10%. This was the first of four contests until, in 1983, in a contested selection, the Southport Liberals chose a more politically focused candidate who, despite increasing the party’s poll, failed to win the seat. Fearn stood again unsuccessfully three more times.
In 1985 Fearn was appointed OBE for services to the community in Southport. When he returned once more for the 1987 election, he became the party’s only gain in England. At the 1992 election he lost, it being argued that the town’s traditional Conservative voters were determined to make sure that Labour’s Neil Kinnock did not become prime minister.
Despite the anguished representations of his successor Conservative MP, his local telephone directory continued to list Fearn as Southport’s MP, and electors carried on coming to him with their concerns. In 1997 Fearn returned to the House of Commons. At an election when the Liberal Democrats’ poll fell slightly, he achieved a swing of 8% in Southport.
He retired from the Commons in 2001, bequeathing enough of his personal vote to ensure the victory of his Liberal Democrat successor, John Pugh. The latter observed: “He was by no means a typical politician and if there is a book written about how to become an MP or a lord, Ronnie never read it.” Created a life peer on leaving the Commons, he retired from the Lords in 2018.
Fearn maintained a lifelong involvement in amateur dramatics. He appeared in the annual All Souls Church group pantomimes throughout his time in parliament, though, with typical self-mockery, he switched from acting the dame to playing the baddie while he was the town’s MP. The productions played to packed audiences at the Arts Centre theatre. He was a natural performer and it seemed the usual politician’s need to be taken seriously simply did not apply to him. Unsurprisingly his appearances at the Liberal Democrats’ end of conference glee club entertainment were eagerly anticipated.
He never moved from Norwood, the district in which his parents had lived and where he attended the primary school. He was the archetypal local MP, who understood what made the town tick and retained a real affinity with its residents.
He is survived by Joyce, Susan and Martin, and five grandchildren.
• Ronald Cyril Fearn, Lord Fearn, politician, born 6 February 1931; died 24 January 2022
