twice attempted to get some movement towards a political settlement from the local political parties. In March 1979, the Irish National Liberation Army planned to assassinate Mason, but the plan was aborted. Mason's policies in Northern Ireland earned the ire of Irish nationalist MPs. That played a part in the March 1979 vote of no confidence, which the Labour government lost by one vote, precipitating the 1979 general election. The Nationalist MP Gerry Fitt abstained in the vote of no confidence and stated that he could not support a government with Mason as its Northern Ireland secretary. After Labour's election defeat in 1979, Mason came under increasing pressure from some on the left in his constituency party and from Arthur Scargill but did not countenance joining the Social Democratic Party. Mason received full police protection over 30 years after leaving office. In 1982, Energy Secretary Nigel Lawson suggested to Margaret Thatcher that she should make Mason the next Coal Board chairman, but she refused by saying that Mason was "Not one of us". Instead, Ian MacGregor was appointed. Later life After his retirement from the House of Commons at the 1987 general election, he was created a life peer on 20 October 1987 taking the title Baron Mason of Barnsley, of Barnsley in South Yorkshire. Mason lived in the same semi-detached house with his wife Marjorie from their marriage until he was aged 84. He died at Highgrove Nursing Home, Stanley Road, Barnsley, of cerebrovascular disease, one day after his 91st birthday, on 19 April 2015. He was survived by his wife and his two daughters. References External links |- |- |- |- |- |- Alumni of the London School of Economics 1924 births English miners British Secretaries of State Deputy Lieutenants of South Yorkshire Labour Party (UK) life peers Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies 2015 deaths Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom National Union of Mineworkers-sponsored MPs People from Royston, South Yorkshire Politics of Barnsley Secretaries of State for Defence (UK) Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland People of The Troubles (Northern Ireland) UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 United Kingdom Postmasters General Presidents of the Board of Trade Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970