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Northumbria Research Link Citation: Griffiths, John Francis (2019) Mr Newcastle: the career of T Dan Smith. Doctoral thesis, Northumbria University. This version was downloaded from Northumbria Research Link: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/43546/ Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University’s research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. Single copies of full items can be reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. The content must not be changed in any way. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holder. The full policy is available online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/pol i cies.html Mr Newcastle: The Career of T Dan Smith J F Griffiths PhD 2019 Mr Newcastle: The Career of T Dan Smith John Francis Griffiths A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Northumbria at Newcastle for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Research undertaken in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences March 2019 Abstract This thesis examines the political career of the socialist politician Thomas Daniel Smith (1915-1993). It considers the origins and development of his ideology and ideas, examines his record as leader of Newcastle City Council, Chairman of the Northern Region Economic Planning Council and the Aycliffe & Peterlee Development Corporations, and also examines the circumstances surrounding his gaoling on corruption charges. Smith was a significant figure in local government and in the brief flourishing of political regionalism in the 1960s; this study casts light on his actions and provides a new perspective on developments in local government and regionalism. The research primarily rests on examination of written archive resources - those of Smith, his political collaborators, political parties and government departments. This is supplemented by oral testimonies from taped interviews with Smith and others. A number of original insights into Smith’s career have emerged from this research. These include his early activity in the Independent Labour Party and Workers’ International League. The thesis shows how Smith moved 1948-1959 from a Trotskyist to a Labour Revisionist stance, and how that affected his plans for the redevelopment of Newcastle and the regeneration of northern England. It shows the origins of the 1963 redevelopment plan for Newcastle were strongly influenced by the 1955 plan for Fort Worth, Texas. It demonstrates the extent of Smith’s efforts to reform urban administration in Newcastle to make fulfilment of his ideas possible. It shows in detail how Smith’s ambitions for Peterlee came close to success in its designation as Britain’s first government-recognised ‘science campus’. It demonstrates how several of the criminal charges laid against Smith in 1973 show major flaws. These findings are important in illuminating a number of areas. They offer a new perspective on the history of the wartime Trotskyist movement. They cast new light on the impact of revisionism in the postwar Labour Party. They contribute to the history of 20th century urban redevelopment by identifying the intellectual origins of the influential Newcastle plan. The findings on Peterlee provide a case study of science policy in a postwar new town. The examination of the criminal charges casts doubt on the stereotyped portrayal of Smith as a ‘corrupt city boss’. Overall, the research shows Smith to be an influential and innovative if highly controversial politician whose career offers fresh perspectives on local government, regional policy, and the postwar Labour Party. List of contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1: A Wallsend Upbringing 27 Chapter 2: Dan’s War 45 Chapter 3: Preparing for Power: 1945-1958 96 Chapter 4: Dan’s Castle: Newcastle 1958-1966 133 Chapter 5: “A sort of regional prime minister” 178 Chapter 6: This Other Eden: Peterlee 1962-1970 220 Chapter 7: A Piece of the Action 278 Chapter 8: Conclusions 316 Bibliography 324 Acknowledgements I should like to acknowledge the help and encouragement given to me by so many during the research and writing of this thesis. First and foremost, I wish to acknowledge the help, advice and support given generously and unstintingly by Dr Bill Lancaster and Professor Keith Shaw, who in turn acted as supervisor and deputy supervisor for my work. I am also very grateful to the University of Northumbria at Newcastle for the financial support they gave me, and to the Graduate School of the university for their sympathetic help and support. I should like also to thank Cliff Smith for his help and generous support in providing archival material, and Peter McTigue similarly for support and archival material. Very many others also provided assistance, including: Dr Lewis Baston, Lord Beecham, Colin Bell, Paul Brenikov, Christine Butterworth, Sir Ralph Carr-Ellison, Dr Ray Challinor, Dr John Charlton, Grace Cheeseman, Fiona Clarke, Dr Gidon Cohen, John Creaby, Sean Creighton, Ronald Curran, John Dougray, Alexander Dunbar, Chris Ford, James Foster, June Gadsby, Roy Gazzard, Bill Griffiths, Professor Sir Peter Hall, Joan Kean, John Kean, Dr Bill Kirkup, Bill Landles, Bill Lawrence, Dr Herbert Loebl, Grigor McClelland, Basil McLeod, Ian Macrea, Theo Marsden, Dr Lewis Mates, Frank Medhurst, Sydney Newson, Professor Ewan Page, Archie Potts, Jack Ramsey, Liz Rees and her colleagues at Tyne & Wear Archives, the 4th Viscount Ridley, Graeme Rigby and his colleagues at Amber, Professor Fred Robinson, Bryce Robson, Joan Robson, Lord Rodgers of Quarry Bank, Parry Rogers, John Sadler, George Simpson, Nigel Todd, Professor John Tomaney, Tom Toward, Doreen Walden, Michael Ward, Sue Ward, Dr Don Watson, Michael Wild, Keith Williamson, Cyril Winskell, Professor Chris Wrigley. I wish to dedicate this work with love and gratitude to my parents, Bernard Griffiths (1919-1994) and Riet Griffiths. Declaration I declare that the work contained in this thesis has not been submitted for any other award and that it is all my own work. I also confirm that this work fully acknowledges opinions, ideas and contributions from the work of others. Any ethical clearance for the research presented in this thesis has been approved and is in accordance with the Research Ethics Framework of the School of Arts and Social Sciences, as approved by the Research Degrees Sub-Committee on 13 February 2008. I declare that the word count of this thesis is 103,256 words. Name: John Francis Griffiths Signature: Date: 29 January 2020 Introduction Thomas Daniel Smith (1915-1993), popularly known as T Dan Smith, was a socialist politician in north east England who rose to fame in the early 1960s as a result of his dynamic leadership of Newcastle City Council. As council leader he cleared many of Newcastle’s remaining slums, introduced in the city a new style of civic-led urban regeneration, piloted the first of a new wave of modernistic city development plans, and a pioneering administrative structure, led by a chief executive, which was to be a model for future developments in England. As well as council leader, he was the first chairman of the Northern Economic Planning Council, chairman of the Aycliffe and Peterlee new town development corporations, a member of the steering committee for the Buchanan Report on Traffic in Towns, of the Sports Council, and of the Royal Commission on Local Government in England. He was one of the most significant figures in British local government in the last hundred years, or even longer: a successor leader of Newcastle was to describe him posthumously as a figure to rank alongside Joseph Chamberlain and Herbert Morrison.1 This thesis takes the form of a critical biography examining the political career of Dan Smith. It covers the period from his youth until his conviction and gaoling on charges of corruption in 1974, looking in detail at the social, ideological and political influences that affected his thinking and his actions over the course of his active career. Outline The account falls into two main phases. The first is a formative period lasting from his youth up to 1958, when the Labour Party gained power in Newcastle City Council. With a background in Marxism learned from his father, and Christian Socialism imbued from his mother, and tempered by hardship and frequent unemployment during the 1930s, Smith sought an understanding of the modern world and how it could be improved, moving from the Christian Socialism of his youth, to the peace movement in the late 1930s. His pacifism led him into the anti- 1 Interview with Sir Jeremy (now Lord) Beecham, 3 January 2008 1 war Independent Labour Party in the early war years, but in the ILP he rapidly began espousing a radically left-wing viewpoint, and, while rising high in the party’s hierarchy, becoming a regional organiser and the North East England representative on the ILP’s ruling council, he also became a covert member of the Workers’ International League, a Trotskyist group seeking to infiltrate the ILP. Expelled from the ILP in 1945, Smith was openly a member of the WIL’s successor party, the Revolutionary Communist Party, until he was expelled from that, too, in 1947. Disillusioned with revolutionary socialism, and influenced by reading The Managerial Revolution by American ex-Trotskyist James Burnham, he joined the Labour Party and in 1950 was elected to Newcastle City Council. There, in eight years in opposition, he was able to build up a group of supporters, based not upon institutional power (he did not, for example, have a strong trade union power base in the local party) nor upon factional political support (the number of former, or current Trotskyists on the council was small), but on his ability to form and communicate coherent policies and plans for Labour in Newcastle.