LABOUR stalwart Lord Dormand has been honoured for his decades of service to public life.
The 84-year-old peer received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from Lord Puttnam, Chancellor of Sunderland University.
The miner's son from Haswell was an educationalist before becoming MP for Easington in 1970. He served as opposition whip for eight years from 1979 and chaired the Parliamentary Labour Party for six years.
He has sat in the House of Lords since 1987 and is one of its active members.
Lord Dormand, better known as Jack, said he was a Labour loyalist who had never spoken or voted against the party.
But he is concerned that children from poor families will not be able go to university under the Government's plans for higher tuition fees. "It is very important that young people should not prevented from going to university," he said.
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