Labour peer Lord Corbett dies, age 78 A leading figure on the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, Lord Corbett served in several front-bench posts in opposition. Lord Corbett was born in Fremantle, Australia on December 22, 1933, and attended Holly Lodge Grammar School in Smethwick. After his national service in the Royal Air Force in 1951, he became a journalist, first for the Birmingham Evening Mail and then for the Daily Mirror. In 1968 he became deputy editor of Farmer's Weekly. Lord Corbett was elected as the Labour MP for Hemel Hempstead at the October 1974 general election, but lost the seat in 1979. He returned to parliament in 1983, representing Birmingham Erdington. He held this seat until his retirement from the Commons at the 2001 general election. He was opposition spokesman on Home Affairs (1979-1992), then for national heritage, broadcasting and press until 1995. He was a Labour Party Whip from 1984 until 1987 and Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee from 1999 to 2001, when he became a life peer. Lord Corbett was an active chairman of the all-party British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom and chairman of Friends of Cyprus.