Tributes to political giant Sir Cyril

OLDHAM’S Council leader has joined the tributes to Sir Cyril Smith, one of the country’s most distinctive politicians, who has died in a Rochdale nursing home aged 82.

Famously large Sir Cyril Smith was the Liberal and later Liberal Democrat MP for the town from 1972 until retiring in 1992.

He became one of his party’s big-hitters in the 1970s and 1980s, once described by a colleague as “a volcano always threatening to erupt — and sometimes doing so”.

Oldham Council leader Howard Sykes had known Sir Cyril for 20 years and said: “I regard Cyril as one of my friends. He was a stalwart, not always popular and I did not always agree with everything he said. He would probably think more of me for that rather than less.

“He made a massive contribution not just in politics but in his charitable work and his civic life in Rochdale.

“I think he will be missed. There will never be anyone else like that.”

The former Mayor of Rochdale was one of three illegitimate children of Rochdale housemaid Eva Smith.

In his poverty–stricken boyhood he suffered from the kidney complaint which he later blamed for his enormous frame. But he won a scholarship to Rochdale Grammar School for Boys before insisting on leaving at 16 so his mother — who was later his Mayoress — would not have to work so hard.

Sir Cyril changed political parties three times and was a Labour Party agent in Ashton and Heywood and Royton.

He had been ill for several months and died at Hurstead nursing home on Friday with his family around him.

Oldham Euro MP Chris Davies said of Sir Cyril: “He could be the most loyal of friends yet a truly formidable foe. Having him on my side was often a cause of comfort.”