Lloyd continued as a constituency MP until October 2012, when he stepped down to contest the 2012 police and crime commissioner elections for the Greater Manchester Police area.[1] He was elected and assumed the position in November 2012. Lloyd, appointed interim mayor of Greater Manchester in 2015, announced in 2016 that he would be seeking to become the Labour Party candidate in the Greater Manchester mayoral election,[2] but lost the nomination to Andy Burnham[3] before being elected as MP for Rochdale in 2017.
Lloyd served as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland between 2018 and 2020, resigning to recover from his illness of COVID-19.[4] He was also Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland between 2019 and 2020. In 2011, the Manchester Evening News listed Lloyd among its 250 Most Influential People in Greater Manchester, describing him as "a major figure on Labour politics in Greater Manchester",[5] and "the most powerful man in Greater Manchester" on his election as police and crime commissioner in 2012.[1] In a directory of MPs produced by The Guardian, Andrew Roth described Lloyd as "well informed, thoughtful and realistic regionalist and internationalist".[6]
Lloyd's father died when he was 13, leaving his mother Cecily, a staunch supporter of the Labour Party, to shape his values. Lloyd said: "My mother had friends who died in the Spanish Civil War. I saw that as a simple battle of good versus evil and in that sense the basic morality of politics was instilled in me. I have always thought if not fighting for what's right and just, then what is politics for?"[8]
Lloyd entered the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Stretford on 9June 1983, after the 1983 general election.[12] He was an opposition whip between 1986 and 1987, and became the opposition spokesman for transport (1987–1992), employment (1992–1994), the environment (1994–1995), and foreign affairs (1995–1997).[6]
Lloyd remained a "powerful" backbencher,[6][11] and on 5December 2006 became Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party – a post which leads all Labour MPs, both government and backbench MPs – by defeating the incumbent, Ann Clwyd, who was perceived as being too close to Blair.[15] When he unseated Clwyd, the feud between Blair and Gordon Brown was much reported[11] – Lloyd, was described by journalist Michael White as a "Brownite ally",[16] and Labour advisor Jonathan Powell wrote that Lloyd was a key member of Brown's "team of henchmen on the Labour backbenches to oppose Tony [Blair]".[17] Lloyd was a Member of the North West Regional Select Committee from 4March 2009 to 11 May 2010.[6] After revelations arising from the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal, Lloyd was forced to apologise for over-claiming £2,210 in rent on his flat in London, adding it was "a genuine error".[11] As Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Lloyd wrote to Labour MPs urging them to publish all expenses claims.[18]
Lloyd voted for Bryan Gould and John Prescott respectively in the Labour Party leadership elections of 1992 and 1994.[13] Although the TheyWorkForYou political activities website declares that Lloyd "hardly ever rebels",[12] he voted against Labour's national agenda in key areas while an MP.[11] He joined rebel Labour MPs by voting against government policy regarding the Iraq War,[12] and rebelled against government policy to detain terror suspects for 90 days without trial.[12] He voted against government policy to introduce student tuition fees,[12] and as an "anti-nuclear and anti-war campaigner",[11][15] voted against the renewal or replacement of the UK Trident programme in 2007.[12] Lloyd was strongly in favour of and voted for the reform of the House of Lords, the Identity Cards Act 2006, and the expansion of London Heathrow Airport.[12][19] Lloyd supported the bid for a proposed supercasino for East Manchester, and was furious with the House of Lords and Gordon Brown for axing the scheme, adding it was "grossly unfair and outrageous" and that "those who kicked it into touch deprived a community with one of the highest levels of unemployment the opportunity to access well paid jobs and proper training".[11][20][21] He supported the proposed Greater Manchester congestion charge,[22] and campaigned in its favour in the 2008 referendum on the Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund, which was "overwhelmingly rejected" by voters.[23]
Lloyd contributed chapters about John Robert Clynes and George Kelley, Labour members of Parliament for Manchester elected in 1906, to Men Who Made Labour, edited by Alan Haworth and Diane Hayter,[29] and contributed a piece on the future of the Labour Party in the 2011 book What Next for Labour? Ideas for a new generation.[30]
Lloyd was described by Andrew Roth of The Guardian as a "realistic regionalist";[6] he supported the creation of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority in 2011, but disagreed that there should be an elected Mayor of Greater Manchester.[6] On 15 February 2012, Lloyd announced his intention to resign as a member of Parliament to stand as a candidate for the directly elected Police and Crime Commissioner for Greater Manchester.[31] Lloyd said he was willing to leave the Manchester Central constituency – a Labour safe seat[32] – for the PCC role because in "all the years I have been a MP, one of the abiding issues that people raised with me was fear of crime".[33] The resulting 2012 Manchester Central by-election was scheduled for the same November polling day.[34] In the 2012 Police and Crime Commissioner elections, Lloyd was elected as the inaugural Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner, winning with 139,437 votes, a share of 51.23% and approximately 7% of the electorate,[35] prompting the Manchester Evening News to quip that he had become "the most powerful man in Greater Manchester".[1]
As Police and Crime Commissioner for Greater Manchester, Lloyd was one of the Labour Party's highest-profile commissioners, overseeing one of the largest police services in England and Wales outside of Greater London.[36] He received £100,000 per year, the largest salary of any English or Welsh Police and Crime Commissioner.[36] He was based at Salford Civic Centre and was required to devise a five-year strategic plan for Greater Manchester Police and hold Sir Peter Fahy, the force's chief constable, to account.[36] On hearing the news that Lloyd had won the election, Fahy said "one of the key roles of the PCC was negotiating and influencing the other local authorities, the health service, businesses and other organisations... We will be expecting him to fight for GMP at a national level with the Home Office over resourcing and changes to legislation".[33] At the end of March 2013, Lloyd published the Police and Crime Plan 2013–2016, setting his nine priorities for policing Greater Manchester. These were:[37]
Driving down crime
Building and strengthening partnerships
Tackling anti-social behaviour
Protecting vulnerable people
Putting victims at the centre
Maintaining public safety, dealing with civil emergencies and emerging threats
Dealing effectively with terrorism, serious crime and organised criminality
Building confidence in policing services
Protecting the police service
The plan outlined Lloyd's vision "for all of us in Greater Manchester to work together to build the safest communities in Britain".[37]
In May 2017, Lloyd was selected to stand as the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for Rochdale at the 2017 general election. He was selected after the incumbent MP, Simon Danczuk, was disallowed from standing again as the Labour candidate, owing to an ongoing internal party investigation into Danczuk's personal conduct.[38] Lloyd was elected with a majority of 14,819.[39]
Following his discharge from Manchester Royal Infirmary Lloyd stood down from his front bench role to concentrate on his recovery from COVID-19, but vowed to continue his work as a constituency MP.[44][45]
In January 2023, Lloyd revealed that he was undergoing chemotherapy after a recent cancer diagnosis.[49] He said he would not attend Parliament or attend face-to-face functions under medical advice to socially isolate and avoid meetings.[50]
In January 2024, Lloyd announced that he had chosen to end hospital treatment, following his cancer developing into an "aggressive and untreatable leukaemia".[51] On 17 January, he died in the early morning at his home in Manchester, as a result of his illness.[52][53] He was 73.[54] Tributes were paid to Lloyd in the House of Commons on 23 January.
Dilworth, Jennifer; Stuart-Jones, Megan, eds. (2011). The International Year Book and Statesmen's Who's Who 2012 (59, illustrated ed.). Brill. ISBN978-90-04-19486-1.
