An example is that, although he was a Zionist and a passionate supporter of the state of Israel, in 1982 he spoke out against the Israeli invasion of Lebanon – which he knew would make him very unpopular with many in Israel.Tam Dalyell. Jim Callaghan on becoming Prime Minister had no hesitation in allowing Freeson to continue in this slot.Sir Gerald Kaufman, his Parliamentary Secretary in 1974-75, describes Freeson as was “an extremely loyal member of the Labour Party” and “a first-rate Minister of Housing [who] carried through important housing legislation which benefited millions of tenants” – in particular tenants with problems of furnished accommodation – and who repealed the Conservative Housing Finance Act and granted an amnesty to councillors surcharged under the provisions of that Act.When the Labour government was defeated in 1979 there were all sorts of political internecine difficulties in the Borough of Brent and Freeson was under constant pressure from Ken Livingstone, who was eventually to oust him from his seat. In spite of his constituency troubles, Freeson proved to be an effective member of the Select Committee on the Environment, which he chaired from 1982 to 1983. I really valued him.In 1969, at the fag-end of the first Wilson government, he became Minister of State for Housing and Local Government. In opposition, he was extremely effective in shadowing the same brief – because he was immersed in the subject, he was able to give Conservative housing ministers a torrid time.

Julian Amery, no mean frontbench performer, thought him a most formidable opponent.When the Labour government was rather unexpectedly returned in 1974 Harold Wilson gave his prot? the very important task of Minister of Housing and Construction and Urban Affairs in the Department of the Environment responsible for New Towns, planning, land and local government. When Harold Wilson offered me Freeson (who another minister said he wouldn’t touch with a barge pole) I accepted him and found that both of us, who had left school at 14 and grown up in poverty, understood each other. In the years 1966-69 a great deal was going on in the Ministry of Power – particularly in relation to North Sea gas policy, the persistent battles with Alf Robens [Chairman of the National Coal Board] and the nationalisation of steel. I (and doubtless others) told him that Reg Freeson had considerable knowledge and would be a real help to him. So it proved.Promoted to Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Power in 1967, he worked well with Dick Marsh.

Freeson had a 4.6 per cent majority when five years previously Skeet’s majority had been 5.1 per cent. Freeson had been particularly effective in sponsoring Willesden housing co-operatives and working hard to promote good community relations in the borough.Tom Fraser, the Scottish MP for Hamilton, Wilson’s first Minister of Transport and a family friend of my in-laws, asked me who would be a suitable Parliamentary Private Secretary for him out of the new intake from a southern English constituency. Our people in the Ministry of Power, once they got used to it, liked him and he made a very favourable impression on the Permanent Secretary, Sir David Pitblado [formerly Principal Private Secretary to Clement Attlee, Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden]. Lord Marsh recalls:Reg could be scratchy and if any sensitive issue to do with race or human rights arose you could see the hackles rising.