NEWS STORY : Joe Haines, the Former Press Secretary to Harold Wilson, Dies at the Age of 97

STORY

Joe Haines, the former Press Secretary to Prime Minister Harold Wilson, has died at the age of 97 his family have confirmed. Born in Rotherhithe in January 1928, Haines got a job on the Glasgow Bulletin and built a career in journalism and politics, becoming the press secretary to Harold Wilson in 1969. A spokesperson for the Labour Party said in a statement:

“He was pre-deceased by his wife, Rene, and they had no children. Though Joe had been struggling with physical illness for some time, requiring three trips to hospital for dialysis every week, and had also lost his sight, he remained mentally alert to the end. He spent Christmas and new year on a cruise of the Iberian peninsula and recently held a 97th birthday party – he was born 29 January 1928 – and insisted on dying at home, where he was looked after by carers.”

Joe Haines wrote the Politics of Power about his time in Downing Street.