He succeeded to the Earldom of Russell on his father"s death on 14 October 2004. Like his father and grandfather (both of whom eventually left), he was a member of the Labour Party and would be regarded as sitting squarely within its left wing.
By the House of Lords Acting 1999, all but 92 hereditary peers were removed from the House of Lords–the abolition of which Russell advocated so he did not sit in the Lords. Russell was the disability rights campaigner for the Labour Party and was campaigns officer for the Royal National Institute of the Blind. He also trained the Metropolitan Police Service.
He was actively involved in Disability Labour and was a former chair of the group.
On 7 May 2010 Russell was elected as Labour councillor for the Cann Hall ward of Waltham Forest London Borough Council, a position he held for a four-year term until May 2014. He lived with his fiancée Georgina Farrer in Leytonstone, until his sudden death from a presumed heart attack on 17 August 2014, aged 45.
However, autopsy later confirmed the cause of death to have been due to a thrombosis.
He was also a longstanding national executive member of the Socialist Educational Association. He was Disability Labour"s first representative on the Labour Party"s National Policy Forum, the National Executive Committee"s equalities sub-committee and the Socialist Societies executive.
He was a regional board member of the Company-operative Group and was active in the Company-operative Party, as well as SERA and Transport 2000.
