Obituary: Leo Abse

Leo Abse, a gay rights champion and former Labour MP, has died at the age of 91.

The flamboyant and controversial politician died at Charing Cross Hospital in Central London last night after a short illness, a family friend announced today.

During 30 years as Labour MP for Pontypool, later renamed Torfaen, he passed more Private Members’ Bills than any other backbencher. His most famous, the Sexual Offences (homosexual reform) Bill, dicriminalising sex acts between consenting men over the age of 21, became law in 1967.

Times Archive, 1967: Homosexual reform Bill is passed

Mr Leo Abse said the Bill would make the country a little more civilized and bring into the community a group which had for so long been alienated

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Paul Murphy, the Welsh Secretary, said: “He was a very distinguished parliamentarian and social reformer who has left an indelible mark on his country.

“The lives of millions of people over the years have been improved because of his social reforms. I know that MPs from all sides of the House will mourn his passing.”

As well as promoting gay rights legislation, Abse was credited with helping to liberalise divorce laws through the 1969 Divorce Reform Act.

His own first marriage ended with the death of Marjorie, his wife of more than 40 years. He was remarried in 2000, amid much media attention, to Ania Czepulkowska, a Polish electrician 49 years his junior.

He told The Times five years ago: “Thanks very largely to my young wife, despite the stroke I had last year, I am getting myself into a position where I will go still harnessed to work, still fighting or creating until one dies.”

Abse’s creativity came in the form of writing books including a “psycho-biography” on Margaret Thatcher, in which he offered an imaginative and occasionally erotic exploration of her personality.

In 2000, he turned his attention to the next generation of politicians. In Fellatio, Masochism, Politics and Love he offered “an analysis of the repressed homosexual components of the relationship between Gordon Brown and Tony Blair”.

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