Former Labour minister Phil Woolas dies aged 66

A former Labour minister who was famously confronted by Joanna Lumley in a live TV showdown has died from brain cancer aged 66.

Phil Woolas was MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth from 1997 until 2010 and held several ministerial posts under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

But his political career ended in controversy and disgrace when a court ruled he had broken electoral law by deliberately making false statements about his Liberal Democrat opponent.

His TV clash with national treasure Ms Lumley came when she led opposition to proposals by Brown’s government in 2009 to restrict the rights of retired Gurkhas to settle in the UK.

At the time, he was a combative immigration minister in the Home Office and Ms Lumley was spearheading the Gurkhas Justice Campaign fighting Woolas’s plans.

With Labour rebels joining Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs, the government suffered a humiliating defeat on the proposals in the Commons.

Then, after an original confrontation inside a TV studio in Westminster, the pair agreed to hold a joint news conference, which descended into chaos.

Broadcast live on Sky News and other channels, the actress appeared to persuade Woolas to accept that the Gurkhas’ lawyers would draw up new guidelines.

And after dramatic scenes, Ms Lumley declared: “I have met Mr Woolas now and I am reassured again. Because I know we are going to assist Mr Woolas in making the strongest guidelines possible.”

It was the defining moment of a life in politics that began when Woolas joined the Labour party at 16 and was president of the National Union of Students from 1984 to 1986.