Frank Field, Baron Field of Birkenhead

The Right Honourable The Lord Field of Birkenhead CH PC DL
Official portrait, 2017
Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee
In office 18 June 2015 – 6 November 2019
Preceded by	Anne Begg
Succeeded by	Stephen Timms
Minister for Welfare Reform
In office 2 May 1997 – 27 July 1998
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Peter Lilley
Succeeded by	John Denham
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Life peerage 11 September 2020 – 23 April 2024
Member of Parliament for Birkenhead
In office 3 May 1979 – 6 November 2019
Preceded by	Edmund Dell
Succeeded by	Mick Whitley
Member of Hounslow Council for Turnham Green
In office 7 May 1964 – 9 May 1968
Personal details
Born	Frank Ernest Field (1942-07-16)16 July 1942 Edmonton, Middlesex, England
Died	23 April 2024(2024-04-23) (aged 81) London, England
Political party	Crossbench[1]
Other political affiliations	Non-affiliated (2020) Birkenhead Social Justice Party (2019) Independent (2018–2019) Labour (1960–2018) Conservative (before 1960)
Alma mater	University of Hull
Website	Official website

Frank Ernest Field, Baron Field of Birkenhead, CH, PC, DL (16 July 1942 – 23 April 2024) was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Birkenhead for 40 years, from 1979 to 2019, serving as a Labour MP until 2018 and thereafter sitting as an independent. In 2019, he formed the Birkenhead Social Justice Party and stood unsuccessfully as its sole candidate in the 2019 election. After leaving the House of Commons, he was awarded a life peerage in 2020 and sat in the House of Lords as a crossbencher.

From 1997 to 1998, Field served as Minister of Welfare Reform in Tony Blair's first government. Field resigned following differences with Blair; as a backbencher, he soon became one of the Labour government's most vocal critics.

Field was elected chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee in 2015, and was re-elected unopposed following the 2017 general election.

In 2018, Field resigned the Labour whip citing antisemitism in the party, as well as a "culture of intolerance, nastiness and intimidation" in parts of the party, including in his own constituency.^[2] Field lost a confidence vote in his constituency party a month before his resignation, after siding with the government in Brexit votes. His resignation of the whip also led to his departure from the wider membership of the Labour Party, according to the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party, although Field disputed this.^[3]