McIntosh was born at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead on 30 April 1933.

[1] McIntosh divided his time between a home in Highgate, London, and one in the Provence region of France.

[1] On 27 August 2010, he died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma at his home in Highgate, aged 77.

A centrist, McIntosh narrowly beat left-winger Ken Livingstone for the leadership.

In September 2005, he became a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe[5] sitting as Chairman of the Assembly's Committee on Culture, Science and Education from January 2010[6] and chairman of its Sub-Committee on the Media from 2008 to 2009.