Leading political figures have paid tribute to disabled rights campaigner Lord Jack Ashley, who has died after a short battle with pneumonia.
Prime Minister David Cameron led the messages of admiration for the Labour peer, who died on Friday night aged 89.
The former MP won the seat of Stoke-on-Trent South in 1966, but lost his hearing less than two years later after an ear operation. He initially feared that he would be forced to give up politics, but quickly learned to lip-read and carried on as the nation's first deaf MP.
Cameron last night praised Lord Ashley and said had made a "significant contribution to public life". He added: "He was a tireless campaigner for disabled people and had a huge impact, not just through his charity work and pushing for legislation in Parliament, but also in changing attitudes.
"It takes characters like Jack, with his extraordinary tenacity, to push for that kind of positive change. He will be sorely missed."
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the peer's life was an "inspiration to all", while Labour leader Ed Miliband called him an "extraordinary campaigner".
Lord Ashley is survived by his three daughters, Jackie, Jane and Caroline. Guardian columnist Jackie Ashley wrote on Twitter of her "wonderful, brave and adored father", adding: "The whole Ashley family is deeply touched by wonderful tributes to our late father. Thank you all so much."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article