chaired the shadow council of the London Borough of Brent from 1964 to 1965, and was an alderman of Brent until 1968. He was elected as the MP for Willesden East with a majority of less than 2,000 votes at the 1964 general election, gaining the seat from sitting Conservative MP, Trevor Skeet. Harold Wilson's Labour government was elected with a slim majority of only five seats, which was quickly reduced to three. Within weeks, he was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tom Fraser, the Minister of Transport, from 1964 to 1967, and then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Power from 1967 to 1969. He served as Minister of Housing and Local Government from 1969 until the 1970 general election the following year. He remained as Housing Spokesman in opposition, and his mastery of the subject made him a fearsome opponent to the incumbent Conservative ministers. With Eric Heffer, he led a Commons protest over the guillotine of the controversial bill which was to become the Industrial Relations Act 1971. Freeson's seat was renamed Brent East in 1974, and he returned as Minister for Housing and Construction in the new Department of the Environment after the February 1974 general election, in a period of high interest rates and rapidly rising house prices. He later added responsibility for new towns, planning, land and local government to his portfolio. He retained his ministerial office when James Callaghan succeeded Harold Wilson as Prime Minister in 1976, becoming a privy counsellor that year, and retained his office until Labour's defeat at the 1979 general election. He remained on the Labour frontbench in opposition, as spokesman on Health and Social Security, but was demoted by Michael Foot in 1981. He later served on the Environment Select committee. He was a member of the Fabian Society, supported the Irish nationalist cause, fought racism, opposed the Korean War and the Vietnam War, was a founder member of CND in 1957, and was one of five Labour MPs on the first Aldermaston March in 1958. He wrote for Tribune, and edited the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight from 1964 to 1967. He was co-chair of the socialist Zionist Poale Zion (Great Britain), but was critical of Israeli policy (e.g. he opposed the 1982 invasion of Lebanon). He attacked the British Nationality Act 1981, and criticised Conservative policy on Northern Ireland. He was a committed left-winger, but