Background
Moody was born in Kingston upon Hull and went to local schools run by the local council before training in woodworking at Hull Technical College.
Moody was born in Kingston upon Hull and went to local schools run by the local council before training in woodworking at Hull Technical College.
He was a low-profile backbench Labour Party Member of Parliament for nearly twenty years. In 1934 Moody was elected to Hull City Council, serving a single three-year term. At the 1935 general election, Moody was the Labour Party candidate for Liverpool Fairfield, losing by more than 7,000 votes.
In 1942 Moody was elected unopposed to the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party in the Trade Union section, his candidature sponsored by the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers.
At the 1944 Labour Party conference he replied on behalf of the Nippon Electric Corporation to a debate about housing. He then stood down from the National Executive Committee in 1946.
Moody was one of the few Labour MPs strongly to support capital punishment through the 1950s. At the age of 70 in April 1962, he announced that he would not be a candidate at the next election.
However, he was criticised by the British Broadcasting Corporation television programme "That Was The Week That Was" in January 1963 for not having made any speeches in the House of Commons since the previous general election.
Moody was a low-profile Member of Parliament who spoke rarely. In 1946 he criticised the National Insurance Bill for containing "too much Beveridge and too little Socialism". He was generally a loyal supporter of the government, but in 1948 he did break the whip to oppose an annuity to be paid to Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh after their marriage.
However, Moody urged disciplinary action be taken against Labour MPs who had signed a telegram to support Pietro Nenni, the Communist-allied Italian socialist.
At the 1950 general election, Moody"s constituency was merged with others and he was selected instead for Gateshead East where he opposed Konni Zilliacus, who had been expelled after signing the Nenni telegram. He beat Zilliacus into third place and emerged 1,719 votes ahead of the Conservative candidate. His majority increased to over 5,000 in the 1951 general election, when Zilliacus did not stand.
38th United Kingdom Parliament. 39th United Kingdom Parliament. 40th United Kingdom Parliament.
41st United Kingdom Parliament.
42nd United Kingdom Parliament]
He was an active member of the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers from 1912, holding several union posts, and also joined the Labour Party. Moody was a low-profile Member of Parliament who spoke rarely.