Alfred Dubs, Baron Dubs (born 5 December 1932) is a British Labour politician and former Member of Parliament.
Early life and education
Alfred Dubs was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia to a Jewish father, Hubert and an Austrian mother, Bedriska. Hubert worked in the cotton industry, whilst Bedriska was a dietitian. Dubs was one of 669 Czech-resident, mainly Jewish, children saved by British stockbroker Nicholas Winton, and others, from the Nazis on the Kindertransport between March and September 1939. Hubert had fled to England the day the Nazis arrived in Czechoslovakia and met young Alf at Liverpool Street station. Alf later said that he clearly remembered leaving Prague station at age six and not touching the food pack given to him by his mother for the next two days. His mother was initially denied a visa but was able to join him and his father in London shortly afterwards.
Dubs learned the facts when Winton's story was broadcast on That's Life! in 1988. He later met Winton in person and campaigned for him to be honoured. Winton was finally knighted in 2003, "for services to humanity, in saving Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, 1938-39".
Dubs was educated at Cheadle Hulme School and the London School of Economics. He then worked as a local government officer and for Ogilvy and Mather as an account executive before entering politics.
Career
Before being elected for Battersea South, Dubs stood three times, due to closely spaced elections. In 1970 he stood for Cities of London and Westminster and was defeated by Christopher Tugendhat. In South Hertfordshire in the February and October 1974 General Elections, he was beaten by Cecil Parkinson. Both were defeats to the other largest party (nationally).
Dubs was elected in the 1979 general election as a member of parliament for Battersea South and for the next parliament was re-elected – in 1983 for Battersea (a restored seat). He lost the election of 1987 for the same seat. Dubs stood for Battersea again at the 1992 election, only to see the Conservative majority increase, against the national trend. From 1988 to 1995, he was director of the Refugee Council. On 27 September 1994, he was appointed as a Labour life peer with the title of Baron Dubs, of Battersea in the London Borough of Wandsworth. He was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office from May 1997 to December 1999.
While Dubs was still in the House of Commons, John O'Farrell worked in his office and was a Labour activist in Battersea. In his book, Things Can Only Get Better, O'Farrell described the events leading up to Dubs's shock defeat by the Conservative John Bowis at the 1987 general election.
Dubs has served on an area health authority and more recently on a mental health trust. He was chair of the Broadcasting Standards Commission until December 2003 and had previously been deputy chair of the Independent Television Commission. He is a trustee of the Open University Foundation.
In the past, he has been a local councillor, chair of the Fabian Society, chair of Liberty, a trustee of Action Aid, a trustee of the Immigration Advisory Service and of a number of other voluntary organisations.
Dubs is a patron of Humanists UK, formerly known as the British Humanist Association, as well as treasurer of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group.
In 2008, Dubs participated in 42 House of Lords debates, well above average for all peers. He has spoken on many varied subjects including the National Probation Service and road safety. Dubs was chair of the Road Safety Foundation.
Dubs lists his main home as a cottage in the Lake District in Cumbria, which enabled him to claim over £26,000 of overnight subsistence expenses in 2007–08, although he has lived in Notting Hill, London, since 1964. In May 2009, he argued in justification that Lords regard the overnight allowance as a payment in lieu of salary. "We are the only legislators in the world that don’t get paid," he said. "The overnight thing is quite generous because it compensates for not having a salary. In practice that’s how it works."
Dubs is a vice-president of the Debating Group.
He was awarded Humanist of the Year 2016 by the British Humanist Association at an awards ceremony in London and an Honorary Silver Medal of Jan Masaryk at the Czech Republic Ambassador's residence in London in November 2019. In 2021, he had his Czech citizenship restored (alongside his British one) and thus became the first Czech-British member of the House of Lords.