David Winnick to stand for re-election at 81

The Labour MP, now aged 79, will be a month shy of his 82nd birthday on May 7, 2015 – a date confirmed for the election since David Cameron did away with a prime minister's right to call the vote when he or she chooses.

If Mr Winnick serves a full five-year term, which he has every intention of doing, he will join the ranks of the oldest ever serving MPs.

The backbencher has never sought to climb the greasy pole of government and has served under Labour leaders Harold Wilson, Michael Foot, Neil Kinnock, John Smith, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and now Ed Miliband.

Despite the odd rebellion, Mr Winnick is deeply loyal to his party, which he said influenced his decision to seek a ninth consecutive term in the Commons and a 10th overall. "I would hope to see a Labour government elected, and I want to contribute in supporting that government", he said. "While I am still able to stand up and speak, that is what I want to do."

He is hoping the Labour party in Walsall North will endorse his bid to be their candidate again. Mr Winnick was first elected to Croydon in 1966, lost his seat in 1970 and then won Walsall North in 1979. He emerged unscathed from the expenses scandal as one of the country's cheapest MPs and played a prominent role in the campaign to get rid of Commons Speaker

Michael Martin over his own part in trying to keep the figures under wraps.

Mr Winnick also brought about his own party leader Tony Blair's first Commons defeat in 2005. Labour MPs were being whipped to support Mr Blair's plans for terror suspects to be detained for 90 days without charge.

Mr Winnick proposed an amendment limiting the detention to 28 days. "The chief whip came to me and said 'Tony wants to see you'," he recalled. "It wasn't that I didn't want to see him, but I was due to put the amendment forward at any moment.

"I quickly went in and told the Prime Minister 'I don't have time to have a debate about this'. He never held it against me."

The oldest ever MPs were Labour's David Logan and Stephen Owen Davies, who both served until the age of 92. Bolsover MP Dennis Skinner is older than Mr Winnick at 80 but plans to retire in 2015.

The current oldest serving MP is Tory Sir Peter Tapsell, who is 83.