Harold Wilson's Europe legacy is being betrayed, argues Johnson

Harold Wilson's statue outside Huddersfield Station.

In a keynote speech to Huddersfield Literature Festival, the former Home Secretary – who is heading the Labour Remain campaign – will turn his fire on David Cameron and the internal ructions which are destabilising the Conservative Party.

Alan Johnson: My hero Harold Wilson was a reluctant European, but no isolationist

Barry Sheerman: Britain’s debt to Harold Wilson, the PM who saw a better future

Mr Johnson cites how the Huddersfield-born PM held the country together after Edward Heath – the leader who led Britain into the European Economic Community – lost the 1974 election and left Mr Wilson to preside over the 1975 referendum on the country’s continued membership of the EEC.

“The parallels between then and now are remarkable,” says Mr Johnson in an extract from his speech which The Yorkshire Post publishes today. “A party divided, a leader who felt the only way out of the predicament was to commit to a referendum following a re-negotiation. A Cabinet allowed to escape collective responsibility and a Government recommendation to remain.

“I’m pretty sure I know which way Harold Wilson would have voted. He may have been a reluctant European but he was never a narrow nationalist and he would never have taken his country into off-shore isolation.”

The centenary of Lord Wilson’s birth has been marked by a number of commemorative events. Barry Sheerman, the current Huddersfield MP, hopes this will lead to a reappraisal of a maligned leader who could not defend his record – including his agenda of aspiration – because of ill health.

“Those who challenge Harold’s achievements and legacy have had it easy,” he writes in today’s newspaper. “The rapid deterioration of Harold’s health in his later years meant that although still alive, he was not in a position to defend his legacy. I hope the commemorations this week will go some way to righting this wrong.”