Alice Mahon: Tributes paid to Yorkshire MP who fought 'tirelessly' for constituents for 18 years

Alice Mahon passed away on Christmas Day, aged 85. As a member of the Labour Party, she was elected MP for Halifax four times and represented the area from 1987 to 2005. Current Halifax MP Holly Lynch said Mrs Mahon was known as an MP who worked hard for her constituency.

"Alice Mahon always had a track record of fighting tirelessly for Halifax, and was much loved for it,” said Ms Lynch. “She was a proud trade unionist and achieved a great deal both inside and outside of Parliament. My thoughts are very much with her family as I know she will be dearly missed as a mother and grandmother.”

Mrs Mahon was born in Buttershaw in Bradford in September 1937 and educated at a grammar school in Halifax before gaining a BA in Social Policy from the University of Bradford. Before her role in national politics, she was a Calderdale councillor and an activist in the National Union of Public Employees, representing colleagues at Northowram Hospital where she was a trainee and then auxiliary nurse, mainly on geriatric wards.

She had three periods of employment as a nurse, with a break in the late 1960s to early 1970s when she was a publican. She then became a lecturer in Trade Union Studies in Bradford before becoming MP for Halifax in 1987.

She was well known at Westminster for her determined anti-war views and rebelled against New Labour, voting against the Iraq war.

But people in Halifax knew her for the campaigning she did for them. Even after her time as MP, she was still fighting for people’s rights, campaigning for sight-saving drugs for patients suffering from wet eye age-related macular degeneration. Mrs Mahon lived in her home in Northowram for 50 years until she fell ill and needed additional support.

She spent her final weeks in Summerfield House Nursing Home in Halifax. Alice lost her loving husband, Tony, in January 2022 and became unwell shortly after then. She is survived by an elder sister, a daughter, two sons and multiple grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Details of the funeral and remembrance event will be released once arrangements have been made.