A man of complexity, foresight and many talents, Lord Anthony Lester, who has died aged 84, was not only a pioneer of radical legislation promoting racial and gender equality, but also a fine artist.

In the 1960s, he used a simple test to assess race discrimination. He concocted fake applications to job advertisements, one with an English and the other an Asian surname. Although they both had the same qualifications, the “Asian applicant” was rarely offered an interview.

Working with the Home Secretary, Roy Jenkins, in Harold Wilson’s Labour government during the 1970s, he was the man primarily responsible for the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 and the Race Relations Act of 1976, which Jenkins warmly acknowledged in his memoirs.

Born in London, the son of Harry Lester, a barrister, and his wife, Kate, a milliner, he was the grandson of Jewish refugees.He studied at City of London School, where a contemporary, John Cooper, recalls that Anthony Lester was the commander of the school cadet force when the school had an outside inspection. He also occasionally oversaw Jewish prayers and co-founded a debating society with TV producer Brian Lapping that was adopted at many public schools. Although not religious himself, Lester ensured the other Jewish boys observed the festivals, jokingly calling himself a ‘kapo’.

Many years later, continuing to describe himself as a non-believing Jew, he joined Rabbi Julia Neuberger’s Sunday classes, cautioning his pupils that too much pride in their religion and identity could lead to a form of racial exclusivity.

After City of London Lester did his national service in the Royal Artillery. After rejecting a suggestion by a senior officer that he should claim to be a member of the Church of England, he was banned from attending a dance at the officers’ mess. He later commented: “I was good enough to die for my country but not good enough to dance with the maids of Kent.”

Jewish matters re-surfaced at Trinity College, Cambridge where he read law. Together with Leon Brittan, the future Home Secretary, he called for the removal of careers service staff who described students as “short and Jewish with wet palms.” As too few students were offended by the comments, their efforts failed.

After Cambridge Lester turned down an invitation to join the Israeli foreign ministry, choosing instead to spend two years at Harvard Law School where he found himself, as he later recalled, among ,“loads of Jews. The way they approached law was quite different. It was a transforming experience.” He arrived in America a few weeks after the murder in Mississippi by the Ku Klux Klan of three civil rights activists. This led to his deepening involvement in human rights causes and his book Justice in the American South, published in 1964.

That same year Lester helped set up the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination, and in the general election two years later stood as a Labour candidate in Worthing but was defeated.

He was called to the Bar at Lincolns Inn and took silk in 1975. In 1987 he was appointed a recorder and remained in office until 1993. He was inspired by the concept of using law as an instrument of social change. He hardly enjoyed his first 10 years spent in commercial work with some criminal work.

In 1971 he married Katya (Catherine) Wassey, a fellow barrister and later asylum judge, and they had two children, Gideon, the artistic director of the theatre of Bard College, New York, and Maya, a QC like her father.

Lester’s involvement with Labour Home Secretary Roy Jenkins began in 1967 when he edited a book of Jenkins’ essays and speeches, and the following year called for human rights legislation in a Fabian Society lecture. He began working with Jenkins on race and sex discrimination legislation in the 1970s. In 1981, he moved with Jenkins to the Social Democatic Party (SDP) and after its collapse he joined the Liberal Democrats. In 1993 he was made a Lib Dem peer. Later he was recruited by Labour’s Gordon Brown into his “government of all talents” as a special adviser to Jack Straw on constitutional reform. He remained with the Lib Dems but did not enjoy voting for things he disliked during the coalition years.

In 2018 Lester was accused of offering a peerage to a women’s rights campaigner in return for sexual favours. He strongly contested this charge but ultimately resigned from the House of Lords, saying he had neither the health nor the strength to combat the allegation.

He greatly enjoyed painting in watercolour, and a few years ago an exhibition of his work was held in West Cork, where the family has a summer home.

In London, he was often seen walking his dog together with his neighbour Robin — now Lord Butler of Brockwell. He also joined the Garrick Club in the late 1960s but resigned in 1995 as the club refused to admit women members.

Human rights remained a prime preoccupation and his last book, Five Ideas to Fight For (2016), focused on the constant need to defend human rights legislation against its critics. In an interview with the Huffington Post he compared the misuse of parliament’s powers with the rise of Nazi Germany during the 1930s.

He died of heart disease in August this year and is survived by Katya, Gideon and Maya.

EMMA KLEIN

Lord Lester of Herne Hill: born 
July3, 1936, died August 8, 2020