- He was the leader of the British Labour Party 1980-1983. As the leader he took the party in a more left-wing direction. Labour's defeat at the 1983 general election was their worst performance since 1918, with the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher winning a 144 seat majority. Foot's manifesto was dubbed "the longest suicide note in history" by Gerald Kaufman.
- He was a pacifist and supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
- He retired from the Commons in 1992.
- Upon his death, he was the longest-lived leader of any British political party.
- He studied philosophy, politics and economics at Wadham College, Oxford.
- He was blind in one eye as the result of an attack of shingles in 1976.
- He dismayed some of his left-wing supporters by supporting the UK's military response to the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982.
- In 1995 it was reported he had received money from the Soviet Union in the 1940s and was later used by spies for spreading "disinformation". The claims first came to light after the 1982 defection of Oleg Gordievsky. Although MI6 did not think Foot was a "spy or conscious agent", it accepted Gordievsky's claim he was classed by the Soviets as an "agent" and "confidential contact".
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