Richard Crossman

The Right Honourable Richard Crossman OBE
Crossman in 1947
Secretary of State for Social Services
In office 1 November 1968 – 19 June 1970
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Keith Joseph
Lord President of the Council Leader of the House of Commons
In office 11 August 1966 – 18 October 1968
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Herbert Bowden
Succeeded by	Fred Peart
Minister of Housing and Local Government
In office 16 October 1964 – 11 August 1966
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Keith Joseph
Succeeded by	Tony Greenwood
Shadow Secretary of State for Education
In office 14 February 1963 – 16 October 1964
Leader	Harold Wilson
Succeeded by	Quintin Hogg
Chair of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party
In office 7 October 1960 – 6 October 1961
Leader	Hugh Gaitskell
Preceded by	George Brinham
Succeeded by	Harold Wilson
Member of Parliament for Coventry East
In office 5 July 1945 – 8 February 1974
Preceded by	Constituency created
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	Richard Howard Stafford Crossman (1907-12-15)15 December 1907 London, England
Died	5 April 1974(1974-04-05) (aged 66) Banbury, England
Political party	Labour
Spouses	Erika Glück Zita Baker Anne McDougall
Alma mater	New College, Oxford

Richard Howard Stafford Crossman OBE (15 December 1907 – 5 April 1974) was a British Labour Party politician. A university classics lecturer by profession, he was elected a Member of Parliament in 1945 and became a significant figure among the party's advocates of Zionism. He was a Bevanite on the left of the party, and a long-serving member of Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) from 1952.

Crossman was a Cabinet minister in Harold Wilson's governments of 1964–1970, first for Housing, then as Leader of the House of Commons, and then for Social Services. In the early 1970s, Crossman was editor of the New Statesman. He is remembered for his highly revealing three-volume Diaries of a Cabinet Minister, published posthumously.