Baron Chitnis

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Biographical Information

"Pratap (later Lord) Chitnis was the post-war Liberal Party’s first grassroots campaigning mastermind, whose pioneering activities laid the groundwork for the later work of better known people such as Trevor Jones and Chris Rennard.

"Born in 1936 to a family with a history of Liberal politics (his grandfather stood and lost in 1906), he was inspired by Jo Grimond to join the Liberal Party himself in 1958. Chitnis first worked in the National Liberal Club’s library and then become head of the newly created Liberal Party Organisation’s Local Government Department in 1960. In this role, and backed by enlightened Liberal figures such as Richard Wainwright, he forged a new job for party headquarters of knowing what was happening in local government around the country and supporting the winning of local elections. That often meant trying to hunt out even as basic information as where there were Liberal councillors elected via scouring local newspapers and ringing local journalists.

"His impact on encouraging local government growth was substantial, but at the national level he made an even bigger splash as a result of being sent to Orpington to run the Liberal Party’s by-election campaign there in 1962. The subsequent victory of Eric Lubbock had much to do with Lubbock, the local party’s success in earlier years and wider social and political trends...

"He authored the Liberal Party’s then new Local Government Handbook, which placed great emphasis on organising for and then vigorously fighting local elections, something that had not been seen as a necessary part of a national political party’s life previously... In later years he was the first Liberal Party Training Officer, then head of its press team, then led the whole Liberal Party Organisation before moving on in 1969 to become Secretary of the Joseph Rowntree Social Service Trust (later renamed the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust). In 1975 he became its Chief Executive, a post he held until 1988.

"In the 1970s and 1980s he was involved in many other organisations, including chairing the British Refugees Council 1986-89, and often being an election observer overseas. He became a life peer in 1977 and now is now nominally a crossbencher but in practice lives in France and does not attend."

Affiliations

• Former Chair, Refugee Action (1981-86)
• Administration assistant, National Coal Board (1958-59) [1]