CITY leaders paid tribute to late Labour stalwart Michael Foot as a “much-maligned man of principle.”

The former Labour leader, who died at his home in north London yesterday morning, had been ill for some time and had been receiving 24-hour care.

Labour group leader Cllr Joe Anderson said he had met 96-year-old Mr Foot on several occasions, and considered him one of his political heroes.

Cllr Anderson added: “He was someone I looked up to in terms of his beliefs and his attitude to life and the human race.

“He was a committed socialist and I had a lot of respect for him.

“I think he was a much maligned figure in his leadership but he certainly got my support.

“The press vilified him and gave him a hard time because he was not someone who fitted the image of what they demanded from politicians in the time he was leading.

“For them it was more about how he looked, and they ridiculed him for that. But he was substance over style.”

Liberal Democrat council leader Cllr Warren Bradley added: “I think people got the wrong perception of him and took him at face value rather than what he stood for.”

Liberal group leader Cllr Steve Radford paid tribute to his “conviction politics.”

Cllr Radford added: “On the peace movement, I think his courage and intellect were right and I always had the greatest respect for him. He belonged to a great radical liberal tradition of anti-militarism, and I think the country jettisoned him for the wrong reasons.

“The world would be a much safer place if they had listened to him.”

The region’s MP’s yesterday paid tribute to Mr Foot and recalled how he always maintained his first job as a shipping clerk in Birkenhead in 1934 shaped his lifelong love of the party – and Merseyside.

Birkenhead MP Frank Field said: “When he came to speak on the docks ahead of the 1997 election, he told me he felt he had come home.”