Steve Lismore obituary
My partner, Steve Lismore, who has died aged 71 in a climbing accident in Italy, was a civil servant and local politician with twin passions for giving children a good start in life and establishing equality of access to employment.Steve’s energy and commitment to action has had a lasting impact across north Derbyshire.Born in Toronto, Canada, to Violet (nee Greaves), a secretary, and Basil Lismore, a toolmaker, Steve loved reading and excelled at Bayview Heights school, Ontario, skipping a grade and winning awards at science fairs.His approach to life was formed in his teens.He combined adventure, practicality and ingenuity as he coaxed cheap motorbikes to ever improved performance.
Steve’s bond with his sisters, Lydia and Carolyn, was forged through their childhood difficulties of having an alcoholic father and a mother dealing with anxiety.This experience meant that he offered an encouraging approach to almost everyone he met.After graduating from York University in Toronto, he made a permanent move to the UK in 1978 to take a master’s degree in English literature at Aberystwyth University, where he met Jenie Thompson.They married in 1982 and lived in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a middle point between Jenie’s teaching job in Nottingham and Steve’s with Manpower Services in Sheffield; they separated in 2009 and divorced three years later.Steve had several leading roles in Touchstone Community Development, a charity in Chesterfield dedicated to helping young people and children get the best start in life through training, education and nursery school provision, and remained a trustee to the end of his life.
While chief executive, Steve provided leadership, secured funding and established projects, and took a personal interest in each trainee.Thousands of children and young people in Chesterfield have been helped by Touchstone.Steve joined the Department for Work & Pensions in 2009 as senior policy adviser on disability employment.He led the team that published the Buckland review of autism employment to acclaim in 2024.Steve was committed to ensuring the review led to action and left a legacy of practical change.
He and I met in 2019 when we were both seconded to work for the Department of Health and Social Care in London, to support the social care directorate as it prepared for the impact if the UK left the EU without a withdrawal agreement.Steve was a school governor and was involved with many other projects in the town he loved, including Citizens Advice, Chesterfield theatre and Transition Chesterfield, a community action group.He served as a Labour councillor, most recently as the cabinet member for health and wellbeing at Chesterfield council.Steve was enthusiastic, inventive and active to the end of his life.He is survived by me, his children, James, Robin, Rosalinde and Simon, from his marriage to Jenie, four grandchildren, Abigail, Dausewell, Leonora and Isabella, and his sisters.
‘Hold the line’: Burnham tells allies in parliament he still has options to return
Andy Burnham has told Labour MPs they should hold the line and that he has options to return to parliament after several seats identified by his allies failed to materialise.Two seats that backers of the Greater Manchester mayor had described as “nailed on” as recently as Monday night are now out of contention after the MPs concerned got cold feet.Burnham spoke to a number of MPs by phone on Tuesday and assured them that he still intended to seek an imminent return to parliament.The Guardian was told by two MPs on Wednesday that Jeff Smith, who represents Manchester Withington, an affluent suburb of the city, was in talks about stepping aside for Burnham, but his friends denied it. Asked whether he was about to make way, Smith told the Press Association he was not
‘It’s more incrementalism’: Starmer’s safe king’s speech fails to quell mutiny
For Keir Starmer’s Labour critics, his second king’s speech, in which the government set out what it would do in parliament over the next 12 to 18 months, was a crystallisation of everything that was wrong with the prime minister’s strategy.Over 34 bills and three draft ones, Starmer set out a programme he said would “make this country stronger and fairer”. But the package, which included limiting trial by jury, reshaping the NHS and moving the country closer to the EU, fell short of what some in the prime minister’s party feel is needed to win back voters’ trust.“Most of this is incrementalism,” said one Labour MP. “This sums up where we have gone wrong in the first two years in government
Starmer has ‘full confidence’ in Streeting despite health secretary’s allies saying he is planning to resign – as it happened
Downing Street has now confirmed that Wes Streeting is still health secretary. The PM’s spokesperson told reporters the prime minister has “full confidence” in the health secretary.Allies of Wes Streeting have said he is preparing to stand down as health secretary amid deep frustration with Keir Starmer’s leadership, and could mount a formal challenge for the leadership as early as Thursday.Keir Starmer has put long-promised changes to education, health and the courts at the heart of his agenda for the next year, as the embattled prime minister looks to prove he can enact the scale of change being demanded by Labour MPs and voters. There were 37 bills in the speech
Labour politicians should put the country before their party | Letters
As an active and loyal Labour member, I am infuriated by what is happening within the party (Burnham allies warn against quick ‘coronation’ of Streeting if Starmer quits, 12 May). The ongoing circus about the leadership is a terrible distraction from the numerous global and national issues that the government and the prime minister should be focused on. But the most infuriating aspect of the entire shambles is the relentless speculation and briefings from so-called “allies” of Andy Burham.No Labour member has an innate right to be selected as a parliamentary candidate. The assertion that a sitting Labour MP should give up the seat voters elected them to, necessitating a byelection so that Burnham can run, then assuming that he would automatically retain the seat, is arrogance beyond belief
Labour lost the vote of small business owners like me | Letter
Your report (Reform wins across northern England overturn decades of Labour control, 8 May) touched on Labour losing support among small business owners. I wanted to offer the perspective of a small independent business owner who has traditionally supported Labour.Labour’s poor local election results may reflect a growing frustration among small business owners who no longer feel recognised as “working people”. In hospitality, hair and beauty, retail and trades, there are thousands upon thousands of us keeping local economies alive while taking home increasingly modest incomes ourselves.Last year, our small independent restaurant in Margate turned over roughly £350,000
King’s speech might be the last word on Starmer as reluctant monarch does his duty | John Crace
The king looked fed up. His attempts to throw a sickie had come to nothing. Did the government really want to go ahead with the state opening? Apparently it did. Would it be OK if he phoned it in? He fancied a day working from palace. It wouldn’t be OK
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