John Platts-Mills

Born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1906 to John Mills, a prosperous businessman, and Elizabeth Platts, a doctor,[1][2] Platts-Mills was educated at Nelson College from 1919 to 1924.[3] He graduated with a first-class honours degree in law from Victoria University College in Wellington and in 1928 won a Rhodes Scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford.

After Oxford he was called to the Bar from the Inner Temple in 1932, then worked as a barrister in London.

Platts-Mills belonged to the ultra-conservative English Mistery group and his flat at 2, Paper Buildings, Inner Temple, was the Mistery's address and meeting place for a time. The proposed Hoare–Laval Pact permanently altered his political outlook[4] and in 1936 he joined the Labour Party. Mills was a friend of Olympic gold medallist and anti-fascist Lewis Clive, who died fighting against Nationalist forces in 1938 during the Spanish Civil War.[5]

On the outbreak of the Second World War he joined the Royal Air Force and was commissioned as pilot officer in June 1940.[6] However, he was asked to leave, and it was suspected that this was due to his communist sympathies. After the Soviet Union was invaded by Germany, the military was more willing to accept communists. During the later part of the war, Platts-Mills volunteered to work as a miner.

At the 1945 general election he was elected as the Labour MP for Finsbury. In the Commons, Platts-Mills emerged as one of a small number of MPs with pro-Soviet sympathies. Platts-Mills' opposition to NATO and his claim that the United States had too much power in Europe brought him into conflict with the Labour leadership.

Platts-Mills was expelled from the Labour Party in April 1948. He had organised a petition in support of Pietro Nenni and the Italian Socialist Party in its general election campaign which was controversial because Nenni was in alliance with the Italian Communist Party and Labour policy was to support the rival Italian Democratic Socialist Party. His expulsion led to the formation in 1949 of the Labour Independent Group which gained support from four other Soviet-sympathising ex-Labour MPs: Konni Zilliacus, D. N. Pritt, Geoffrey Bing and William Warbey. Platts-Mills stood as an Independent Labour candidate in the new Shoreditch and Finsbury constituency in the 1950 general election but only came third.

He returned to his legal career and established himself as one of Britain's leading barristers. He was made a Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1964,[1] and readmitted to the Labour Party in 1969.[7] "A master of courtroom theatre.. [whose] clashes with the Bench entered into legal legend",[1] Platts-Mills was defence counsel to many clients, including the Great Train Robbers and the Kray twins.[8]

Platts-Mills died on 26 October 2001.[7]

In 1936, he married artist Janet Cree. He was the father of a forester Tim Platts-Mills, a Lonrho director Jonathan Platts-Mills, Thomas Platts-Mills, Barney Platts-Mills, a wood sculptor Benjamin Platts-Mills and Mark Platts-Mills QC.

• Apollo University Lodge
• Orwell's list

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

• Edmond, Martin (2017). The Expatriates. Wellington: Bridget Williams Books. pp. 182–251. ISBN 978-19885-33179.
• John Platts-Mills QC: Muck, Silk and Socialism - Recollections of a Left-wing Queen's Counsel. Autobiography, published posthumously in 2002 by Paper Publishing, Oldwood Cottage, Wedmore, Somerset BS28 4XW. ISBN 0-9539949-0-2. xvi + 687 pages.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Platts-Mills