Tributes pour in for 'amazing politician' Mo (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Tributes pour in for 'amazing politician' Mo

Mo Mowlam at the Swindon Festival of LiteratureFORMER Northern Ireland secretary Mo Mowlam is irreplaceable, according to a Swindon MP.

As reported in the second edition of yesterday's Advertiser, Ms Mowlam died at the Pilgrim's Hospice in Canterbury, Kent, yesterday morning.

Anne Snelgrove, MP for South Swindon, paid tribute to her.

"Mo Mowlam was impressive in private and in public," she said.

"Although I did not know her well I had the honour of meeting her several times and she was someone I looked up to in the Labour Party.

"She played an enormous role in working for peace in Northern Ireland showing a matchless talent with people here and abroad.

"She is irreplaceable as a politician and a person."

Yesterday North Swindon MP Michael Wills said everyone would remember Ms Mowlam, pictured, with great fondness and recalled a visit she paid to the women's refuge in Swindon in 1996.

"She kicked off her shoes, sat on the floor and talked to some of the women there," he said. "It was very personal and that was typical of her."

Ms Mowlam's last visit to the town was in 2002 when she spoke at the Swindon Festival of Literature.

Festival organiser Matt Holland described how she came to his house before the event and did the washing up.

"She was a delightful, down to earth and engaging woman," he said.

Former South Swindon MP Julia Drown described her as great fun and an amazing politician.

Ms Mowlam, who had previously suffered a brain tumour, stood down from the Commons at the 2001 general election after 14 years as an MP.

She suffered difficulties with her balance as a result of radiotherapy treatment and earlier this month she fell, banged her head and never regained consciousness.