[3] As a committed supporter of the Labour Party, Pitt had joined the Research Department under Peter Shore before the 1964 general election.
The Research Department had a small staff and a crucial role as a new general election was likely to follow within a short period.
In the run-up to the 1970 general election, Pitt and his department resisted pressure from Harold Wilson to tone down socialist policies in the preparation of the new manifesto.
[19] He moved to the left during the period after 1970,[2] and in spring 1972 he produced a 40,000 word policy statement for the Labour Party which was poorly received by senior spokesmen.
[22] James Callaghan criticised the Research Department for producing too much policy and not making enough effort to promote existing proposals.
[23] After the Labour Party returned to government in 1974, Pitt was appointed Special Adviser to Lord President of the Council, Edward Short; he was succeeded as head of the Research Department by Geoff Bish.
He returned to the United Kingdom in 1981 to be Senior Adviser on Economic Development to the Labour-run West Midlands County Council.
[1] At the 1984 election to the European Parliament, Pitt was selected as Labour candidate for Midlands West, a constituency which included the towns of Dudley and Wolverhampton; he won the seat by 19,685 votes.
The inquest also found that Pitt had a heart condition which could have killed him at any time and returned a verdict of accidental death.