Eric Douglas Harvey Hoyle was born in Coppull, near Chorley, in Lancashire, on 17 February 1926 to William Hoyle and Leah Hoyle (née Harvey).[3][4][5] His father was a shop assistant at a Co-op and a social member of the local Conservative club.[5]
Hoyle attended Adlington Church of England school and Horwich and Bolton Technical Colleges, before he started working as an engineering apprentice for British rail in Horwich.[5] He moved to Manchester to work as a sales engineer in 1951, before joining a company in Salford as a marketing executive in 1953 where he worked until his election as an MP.[5]
Hoyle first stood for Parliament at Clitheroe in 1964, but came second. In 1970, he first fought Nelson and Colne, and was defeated by the Conservative incumbent David Waddington by 1,410 votes. He fought the seat again in February 1974, and reduced Waddington's margin to 177. He was finally elected at the general election of October 1974 for Nelson and Colne by 669 votes; this was the first Labour gain to be announced on election night.
Hoyle narrowly lost his seat at the general election of 1979, but returned to Parliament in 1981 when he saw off a strong challenge from Roy Jenkins in a traditionally safe Labour seat. This was a notable by-election in Warrington when enthusiasm for the newly created Social Democratic Party was at its peak. Constituency boundaries were redrawn for the general election of 1983, when he became MP for Warrington North.
Hoyle stepped down from the House of Commons at the general election of 1997, and on 14 May 1997, he was created a life peer as Baron Hoyle, of Warrington in the County of Cheshire in the 1997 Dissolution Honours.[7][8][9] He retired from the Lords on 25 July 2023.
In November 2010, Lord Hoyle was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Chester for his 'outstanding contribution to the Borough of Warrington'.[16]
