Education
Milner was educated at the University of Leeds and became a solicitor.
Milner was educated at the University of Leeds and became a solicitor.
He was a Leeds City Councillor and Deputy Lord Mayor of Leeds in 1928, and was also Chairman of Leeds Labour Party and President of Leeds Law Society. He later became deputy-lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire. He became Chairman of Ways and Means and Deputy Speaker and led the British Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1945.
In 1951, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Douglas Clifton Brown, had stepped down. As Chairman of Ways and Means, Milner wanted to be Labour"s first-ever Speaker.
However, the Conservatives, now the majority party, nominated William Morrison. The vote went along party lines – the first time the post had been contested in the 20th century – and Milner lost.
As some compensation, he was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Milner of Leeds, of Roundhay in the City of Leeds on 20 December 1951.
Denis Healey replaced him in the subsequent by-election. Milner"s son, Michael, born in 1923, succeeded him as Baron Milner of Leeds and topped the poll of hereditary Labour peers to stay in the House of Lords in 1999.
35th United Kingdom Parliament. 36th United Kingdom Parliament. 37th United Kingdom Parliament.
38th United Kingdom Parliament.
39th United Kingdom Parliament. 40th United Kingdom Parliament]
He was elected as the Labour Member of Parliament (Member of Parliament) for Leeds South East at a by-election in August 1929, and served until 1951.