Background
Mitchell was born in Southampton on 22 August 1927.
Mitchell was born in Southampton on 22 August 1927.
He attended Taunton"s Grammar School as a youth and graduated from the University of Southampton with a degree in Economics.
He represented Southampton Test for Labour from 1966 to 1970, and Southampton Itchen for Labour and then the Social Democratic Party from 1971 to 1983. He taught mathematics and science at several schools before eventually finding a position as Senior Master and Head of the Mathematics and Science Department of Bartley County Secondary School, becoming Deputy Head in 1965. In the 1964 general election, Mitchell contested Southampton Test, which he lost by a mere 348 votes.
However, his hold on Southampton Test would prove to be tenuous.
In the Conservative victory in the 1970 general election, Mitchell lost his marginal seat. However, Mitchell was not out of the House of Commons for lougitude
His former Parliamentary neighbour in Southampton Itchen, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Doctor Horace King, was elevated to the House of Lords in late 1970. Once he returned to the House of Commons, Mitchell quickly re-established his reputation as a "classic trades-union rightist" within the Labour Party.
He was a firm Atlanticist and a stalwart defender of the constitutional monarchy, but was also in favour of the nationalisation of Britain"s ports.
After the 1979 election, Mitchell felt increasingly uneasy with the leftward drift of the Labour Party. This deep sense of connection contributed to his initial reluctance to leave the Labour Party but, by May 1981, he had formally announced that he did not plan to stand for re-election as a Labour candidate in Southampton Itchen. However, not until after the Labour conference in the autumn of 1981 did he formally leave Labour for the Social Democratic Party. When he left, he cited as opposition to "further nationalisation, import controls and withdrawing Britain from the Common Market."
Mitchell"s strong performance was a tribute to the personal vote he had built up over 18 years serving Southampton as an Member of Parliament. Once out of parliament, Mitchell served as a lecturer in Business Studies at Eastleigh College of Further Education.
He contested Southampton Itchen again in the 1987 election as the Liberal-Social Democratic Party Alliance candidate, but finished third behind Chope and the Labour candidate, John Denham.
Mitchell died in his native Southampton on 18 September 2003.
Mitchell also became active in Labour party politics, becoming a member of the Southampton borough council in 1955 and contested the safe Conservative seat of New Forest in the 1959 general election. However, he was rooted in the Labour movement and was loath to leave the party that he been a member of for nearly four decades.
44th United Kingdom Parliament. 45th United Kingdom Parliament. 46th United Kingdom Parliament.
47th United Kingdom Parliament.
48th United Kingdom Parliament]
He also was an active member of the National Union of Teachers. He served as Shirley Williams" Parliamentary Private Secretary and as an indirectly elected member of the European Parliament from 1975-1979.