Edward Lyons

In 1994, he rejoined the Labour Party and remained an active supporter until his death from myelofibrosis – a disease of the bone marrow.

As an MP he represented Bradford East from 1966 until the constituency was abolished in 1974, and was then elected to the Bradford West seat from 1974 to 1983.

In 1981, he was one of a number of MPs who left the Labour Party to join the newly formed Social Democratic Party, (SDP), but he lost the seat two years later when he gained only 27 per cent of the vote and came third to the then Labour candidate, Max Madden.

In 1979 when Margaret Thatcher led the Conservative Party to victory, he secured an unusual swing to Labour against the national trend.

It was attributed to heavy support from the Asian community in protest at Mrs Thatcher's anti-immigrant stance.

During his time at Westminster he was a Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Treasury and after joining the SDP was their Parliamentary spokesman on Home Affairs.

His interest in human rights took him to South Africa, Swaziland and Namibia on behalf of the International Commission of Jurists as an observer at political trials, but in 1968 but he was refused entry to the Soviet Union as an Amnesty International observer at the trial of Soviet writers in Moscow.

His first attempt at gaining a Commons seat was in 1964 when he unsuccessfully contested Harrogate.

Mr Lyons was born in Glasgow, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, but the family moved to Leeds when he was an infant and he was educated at Roundhay High School.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, he volunteered for the Royal Artillery and was selected to train as a Chinese interpreter when a lengthy war was expected in the Far East. But when the conflict ended suddenly after the dropping of the atom bombs he retrained at Cambridge University as a Russian interpreter and was used by the Army in post-war Germany.

Following demobilisation in 1946 he returned to Yorkshire to study law at Leeds University but half way through his course his father, who ran a tailoring factory in the city, died in a car accident, and Edward Lyons took it over while also trying to study.

He was called to the Bar in 1952 and had a successful criminal practice on the North Eastern circuit and in London. He was appointed a Crown Court Recorder in 1971 and Queen's Counsel in 1983. He returned to the Bar and full time practice following his defeat as an MP in 1983.

When he retired from the Bar, he returned to study at Leeds University where in 2003, at the age of 77, he graduated with a BA in European Studies 52 years after gaining his first degree there.

Away from the law and politics he was very fond of the theatre and opera, and was a supporter of Opera North and the West Yorkshire Playhouse, as well as a regular attender at the Buxton Literary Festival.

Baroness Morgan, the Labour peer and Mr Lyons' daughter-in-law, said: "Edward never forgot his roots and worked tirelessly to help people less fortunate than himself realise their hopes for themselves and their families.

"He was a thoroughly principled and decent man, as well as being intelligent and well-informed, always happy to engage in discussion whether in court or round the dinner table. He was also a devoted family man.

"In his later years he delighted in the company of his four

grandchildren, and they in his."

Mr Lyons is survived by his wife Barbara, son John, daughter Jane and four grandchildren.