TRIBUTES poured in today for former Labour MP and anti-poverty campaigner Frank Field, who has died aged 81.

Lord Field served as Labour MP for Birkenhead from 1979 until shortly before the last election, when he resigned from the party amid controversies with his local constituency party.

He unsuccessfully contested the seat as an independent and was ennobled thereafter.

Briefly a minister under Tony Blair with a mandate to “think the unthinkable” on welfare reform, Field did not last long in government since the unthinkable proved to be politically unpalatable.

Prior to becoming an MP, Frank Field was director of the charity Child Poverty Action Group, which said today that he had been a “true champion for children and low-income families.”

The charity’s chief executive Alison Garnham said: “As CPAG director, Frank also helped pave the way for the minimum wage, free school meals and rent allowances for low-income families, all fundamental social protections.”

The statement from his family announcing Lord Field’s death from cancer said he would be “mourned by admirers across the political divide” and this appeared to be true.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Lord Field had “dedicated his life to being a voice for the vulnerable and marginalised people in the country.”

And Tory former home secretary Priti Patel praised his  “unwavering moral compass” and “commitment to working cross-party and unshakeable principles.”

Veteran Labour MP Harriet Harman said: “At Frank’s core was the conviction that poverty was never to be accepted and could be ended.

“Clever, persistent and caring, he held that argument high across decades.”

Mr Blair said Lord Field was an “independent thinker never constrained by conventional wisdom, but always pushing at the frontier of new ideas.”

Field was a member of the Labour Leave group and committed to honouring the result of the 2016 Brexit referendum.