Michael Hugh Meacher (4 November 1939 – 20 October 2015) was a British politician who served as a government minister under Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Tony Blair.

He then studied at New College, Oxford where he graduated with a first-class honours degree in classics and divinity,[5] and at the London School of Economics, where he gained a Diploma in Social Administration.

Meacher became a researcher and lecturer in social administration at the Essex and York universities and wrote a book about elderly people's treatment in mental hospitals.

[1] Despite Blair's hostility, Meacher gained a reputation for being a politician who was on top of a complex brief[7] and was one of the longest serving ministers in the same job in the Labour Government, from 1997 to 2003.

[9] Meacher claimed that a supposed absence of prevention by United States authorities of the September 11 attacks was "suspicious" and "offered an extremely convenient pretext" for subsequent military action in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[13] In May 2005, Meacher introduced an early day motion on climate change, which called upon the government to commit to yearly CO2 emission reductions of 3%.

[24] On 27 April 2007, it was reported that Meacher had reached an agreement with McDonnell that upon the day Blair announced his resignation, whichever of the two had fewer nominations would step aside and allow the other to challenge Gordon Brown.

"[25][26] Meacher was a member of Political Leaders for 9/11 Truth, which petitioned President Obama for an independent investigation into the September 11 attacks not led by "individuals closely aligned with, or even employed by, the Bush-Cheney administration.

[28] Meacher died from lung cancer at St George's Hospital in London on 20 October 2015, at the age of 75, and was buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery.