William McCarthy, Baron McCarthy

{{Short description|British politician (1925–2012)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

William Edward John McCarthy, Baron McCarthy (30 July 1925 – 18 November 2012){{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/people/mr-william-mccarthy/index.html|title=Mr William McCarthy|work=Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)|access-date=7 March 2010}}{{cite journal |title=Obituaries |journal=University of Oxford Gazette |volume=143 |issue=5011 |date=17 January 2013 |page=261}} was a British Labour politician. McCarthy was a fellow of Nuffield College and Templeton College, Oxford{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0UaIl-Btk58C|title=New Labour at Work|author=William Edward John McCarthy|year=1997|publisher=Institute for Public Policy Research|accessdate=7 March 2010 | isbn=978-1-86030-059-2}} and a specialist in industrial relations. He was created a life peer on 19 January 1976 as Baron McCarthy, of Headington in the City of Oxford.{{London Gazette |issue=46804 |date=22 January 1976 |page=1019}} From 1979 to 1997 he was Opposition Spokesperson for Employment. McCarthy was described as "one of Britain’s most influential academics in the field of industrial relations, a painstaking arbiter in the most testing of disputes.. "[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/9691528/Lord-McCarthy.html "Lord McCarthy: Telegraph obituary" at telegraph.co.uk]

McCarthy grew up in Islington, London and attended Holloway County School (now Holloway School).[http://www.oldcamdenians.info/school Old Camdenians]. Retrieved 31 January 2015 He worked in a gentlemen's outfitter, where he was a representative of the USDAW trade union, which sponsored him to study for a diploma at Ruskin College, Oxford. In 1955 he matriculated at Merton College, Oxford, taking a first class honours degree in philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) in 1957 before going on to read for a DPhil at Nuffield College, Oxford, where he held a research fellowship from 1959 to 1963.{{cite book|editor1-last=Levens|editor1-first=R.G.C.|title=Merton College Register 1900-1964|date=1964|publisher=Basil Blackwell|location=Oxford|page=468}}{{Cite web |date=2012-11-19 |title=Lord McCarthy obituary |url=http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/nov/19/lord-mccarthy |access-date=2023-01-18 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}

In 1965 he was appointed research director at the Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers’ Associations. The commission was established by the Wilson government and led ultimately to the "In Place of Strife" reform proposals of 1969. McCarthy led on a wide range of research projects, including work on the election of shop stewards.

In 1978 McCarthy arbitrated in a dispute brought by the rail union, ASLEF over bonus payments for the drivers of the high-speed Advanced Passenger Train.

McCarthy was a supporter of the British Humanist Association.