Background
Isaac Foot was born in Plymouth, the son of a carpenter and undertaker, and educated at Plymouth Public School and the Hoe Grammar School, which he left at the age of 14.
Isaac Foot was born in Plymouth, the son of a carpenter and undertaker, and educated at Plymouth Public School and the Hoe Grammar School, which he left at the age of 14.
He then worked at the Admiralty in London, but returned to Plymouth to train as a solicitor. As Deputy Mayor he represented Plymouth in the United States for the celebrations of the Mayflower"s tercentenary. Foot first stood for parliament in Totnes in January 1910, losing to the sitting Liberal Unionist, F. B. Mildmay He then stood twice for Bodmin, but was unsuccessful.
He lost his seat in October 1924 but regained it in the 1929 General Election, when the Liberals took all five Cornish seats.
He held the seat until he lost again in November 1935. Foot served on the Round Table Conference on India in 1930-1931 and on Burma in 1931 and was also on the Joint Select Committee on India.
His championing of the poor of the subcontinent earnt him the sobriquet of "the member for the Depressed Classes". In 1931 he became Secretary for Mines in the National Government, but resigned the following year in protest at the protectionist Ottawa Agreements.
He fought two more elections, at Street Ives in 1937, and Tavistock in 1945, losing both.
In 1936 he was elected to serve on the Liberal Party Council. He became a Privy Counsellor in 1937. Foot served as Vice President of the Methodist Conference (1937-1938) and as President of the Liberal Party (1947).
Foot also served as Deputy-Chairman of the Cornwall Quarter Sessions in 1945, and was Chairman from 1953 to 1955, a distinction rarely granted to a solicitor.
Exeter University awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in 1959. Foot also built up a library of over 70,000 books at his home near Callington and would wake at five in the morning in order to read them.
In old age he taught himself Greek, so as to read the New Testament in the original.
Michael Foot became a major socialist intellectual, Member of Parliament and leader of the Labour Party (1980-1983).
32nd United Kingdom Parliament. 33rd United Kingdom Parliament. 35th United Kingdom Parliament.
36th United Kingdom Parliament]
He became a member of the Liberal Party, and in 1907 was elected to Plymouth City Council, which he remained a member of for twenty years, serving as Deputy Mayor in 1920.
Foot was elected as Member of Parliament for Bodmin at a by-election in February 1922, retaining his seat in the general elections of 1922 and 1923. In 1945 he was chosen unanimously as Lord Mayor of Plymouth, despite not being a member of the council.