Lord Dormand of Easington, a former chairman of the parliamentary Labour party and a staunch fighter on behalf of the mining community, has died in hospital aged 84, his colleague Lord Graham of Edmonton confirmed yesterday.

Jack Dormand represented the mining constituency of Easington in the Commons from 1970 to 1987 before becoming a life peer. He was a government whip during the late 1970s and was credited with keeping the Callaghan administration afloat until Margaret Thatcher stormed to power in 1979.

Throughout his career, he also demonstrated a special interest in education.

As chairman of the republic all-party parliamentary group he recently called on the government to establish a select committee to consider the future of the monarchy.

The Labour party also an-nounced yesterday that Lord Islwyn had died after a 40-year career at Westminster.

Roy Hughes, the 78-year-old Oxford-educated son of a miner, served as Labour's front-bench spokesman on Welsh affairs during the 1980s and was also chair of the Welsh parliamentary party and the Welsh grand committee.