Tributes paid to former Blackpool North MP Harold Elletson who has died in Berlin aged 62

In a busy and varied career, he was once accused of being a spy and also co-founded the Northern Party to campaign for better representation for Northern England.

The former politician also held an ancient ancestral seat in Over Wyre, Parrox Hall, through which he was known as the Squire of Preesall.

Distinguished academic Dr Elletson had been living and working for the past two decades in Berlin with his partner Rebecca Stromeyer, with whom he was a co-founder of the Africa Forum on Business, Investment and

Security.

The pair were planning to marry when he died suddenly in the morning of June 23 at Rebecca’s country house in the village of Grunow in the Märkische Schweiz, a nature reserve 30km north east of Berlin.

It is believed he suffered a fatal lung embolism, having undergone treatment in England and Germany for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Eton-educated Dr Elletson was elected as the Conservative MP for the new seat of Blackpool North in 1992 and served the constituency for five years.

While an MP he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in the early stages of the peace process and was also a member of the Select Committee on Environmental affairs

In 1997, when boundary changes led to the creation of the Blackpool North and Fleetwood constituency, he lost to Labour candidate Joan Humble.Controversies erupted at various stages of his career, with policy fallouts with the Conservative Party and allegations in a national newspaper that he was an MI6 agent.On December 22, 1996, The Observer newspaper claimed he moonlighted as an MI6 agent: the headline reading "Pro-Serb Tory MP was MI6 Agent".The newspaper said he was recruited before he entered the House of Commons, working for the intelligence agency in the former Soviet Union and during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia:

It was later established that prime-minister John Major had actually given Dr Elletson “special permission to continue his under-cover role while an MP.”

In 2015 he co-founded the Northern Party to campaign for better representation for Northern England.At the 2015 general election, he contested the Lancaster and Fleetwood constituency for the Northern Party, coming last with 0.4% of the vote.

In December 2019, in despair at Brexit Dr Elletson, who had long parted company with the Conservatives, urged his neighbours in Lancaster and Fleetwood to vote for Labour’s Cat Smith.

He was a vocal opponent of controversial plans for gas storage in Preesall (Canatxx / Halite) and fracking.

In recent years Dr Elletson was chairman of The New Security Foundation, UK and had previously been Director of the NATO Forum on Business and Security.

Dr Elletson, who was a fluent Russian speaker, was also the author of several meticulously-researched books on a various political and historical subjects.

Paying tribute to Dr Elletson, heritage photographer Juliette Gregson wrote on social media: “A great loss for Over Wyre.”Family friend Leanne Murray said “His many many accomplishments are simply amazing.”

Formerly married to Fiona, he leaves two children, Alexander and George, and his partner, Rebecca.