Brian Smedley has paid a moving tribute to the former Chancellor and Labour MP Denis Healey who died this week.

He said: "Everyone is describing Denis Healey as a giant of the Labour movement and clearly he was. But more than that he represented a Labour Party at a time when we had a strong NHS, a Nationalised Rail network and a more equal Britain."

The former soldier, Oxford graduate and MP for Leeds died at the age of 98, and came close to becoming labour leader in 1980 - a contest narrowly won by Michael Foot.

Reflecting on the life of Denis Healey Mr Smedley said: "Most importantly he stuck with the Party during the split with the SDP, showing exactly what a broad church the Labour Party is and despite the many arguments about the best road to socialism, the place to have those discussions is in a strong and united Movement.

"A lifelong socialist and anti-Fascist , his military service in World War two took him to the Anzio beach-head, but having lived through the horrors of war he remained a firm campaigner for peaceful resolutions, once telling the BBC that he would never authorise the use of nuclear weapons.

"Like Jeremy Corbyn today he knew that if things had got to that stage then the dangerous policy of nuclear deterrence would have failed anyway."