Terry Fields, who died on 28 June, 2008, was a rebellious MP whose opposition to the poll tax landed him in jail in 1991.

And his militant opposition to what he called "Thatcher's gift to the rich" isolated him within his own party, leading to his expulsion from Labour a few months before the 1992 general election.

He was an old school Labour politician with Trotskyite values and his campaigning on working class issues earned him a Parliamentary seat in the constituency of Liverpool Broadgreen in the 1983 election, despite a landslide victory for the Tories.

He was of working class background himself, having been born in Bootle on 8 March, 1937. Before going into politics he was a firefighter with the Merseyside service and he became a respected union representative.

Mr Fields was a member of the Militant Tendency, a Marxist splinter group within the Labour Party. During the 1980s the party's leadership went to great lengths to rid itself of the Militant Tendency and what Denis Healey described as their "clapped-out dogmas".

However, Mr Fields was successful at the 1983 election, campaigning as "a worker's MP on a worker's wage". Despite the continual efforts of Labour's new leader Neil Kinnock to eject him and fellow Militants, Mr Fields lasted until September 1991 when his spell in prison provided the perfect excuse to boot him out. "Law makers must not be law breakers," said Mr Kinnock.

The previous July he had been sentenced to 60 days in prison for refusing to pay his £373 poll tax bill. After his expulsion from the part he attempted to retain his seat as an independent but won only 14% of the ballot.

He died of lung cancer.at his home in Netherton, Merseyside, at the age of 71. He was survived by his wife Maureen, his children, Michael, Paula and Stephan, 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.