Reg Goodwin
| Sir Reg Goodwin | |
|---|---|
| Leader of the Greater London Council | |
|
In office 1973–1977 |
|
| Preceded by | Desmond Plummer |
| Succeeded by | Horace Cutler |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
3 July 1908 Streatham, London, England |
| Died | 29 September 1986 (aged 78) |
| Political party | Labour |
Sir Reginald Eustace Goodwin (3 July 1908 – 29 September 1986), usually known as Sir Reg Goodwin, was a British politician. He was Leader of the Greater London Council from 1973-77. On the moderate wing of the Labour Party, he favoured public control of utilities.
Goodwin was from a middle-class family of five and was born in Streatham. He went to Strand School, leaving at 16 to become a tea-buyer for a City firm. In his spare time he worked at the Oxford and Bermondsey Boys' Club, a charity set up by the University of Oxford to help underprivileged boys in Bermondsey, where he then lived. Through this work he became full-time Assistant Secretary of the National Association of Boys' Clubs when it was established in 1934. From 1945 he was its General Secretary.
Goodwin joined the Labour Party in 1932, and began his political career when he was elected to Bermondsey Borough Council in 1937. His administrative ability was noticed and he became Leader of the Council in the 1940s. Meanwhile, he had been elected to the London County Council in 1946, where Labour Leader Sir Isaac Hayward spotted his potential and gave him important committee assignments.
Goodwin became a member of the Greater London Council after its first election in 1964 and chaired the Finance Committee in the Labour administration. After the Conservatives won a landslide election victory in 1967 he was chosen as the new Labour Leader almost by default, other more dynamic personalities having been defeated. He was knighthood on the recommendation of Harold Wilson in the 1968 New Year Honours and was almost always known as 'Sir Reg' thereafter.
After the second defeat in 1970 Goodwin became more aggressive in his opposition to Sir Desmond Plummer's Conservative GLC. Labour had not opposed the Conservative GLC's policy of building urban motorways in 1970 but by June 1972 Goodwin had been convinced by the strength of public opinion, and said "Labour pledges itself to abandon the disastrous plans to build two motorways which threaten the environment of Central London". He called on the GLC not to enter into contracts to build the motorways so that Londoners could have a choice at the 1973 elections.
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