Lord Lipsey was a former journalist and adviser to Labour.

Police confirmed that he had been found dead after swimming in the River Wye in Wales on Tuesday last week ( 1^st July).

Lord Lipsey was a promoter of better standards in journalistic coverage of polls. He challenged MRS and the British Polling Council (BPC) to increase the training provided to journalists and improve publicly available advice on how to read polls.

A fellow of the British Academy of Social Science, Lipsey was a former opinion polling adviser to Jim Callaghan as prime minister, and previously co-chaired the All Party Statistics Group in Parliament. 

As chair of the Lords Committee on Political Polling and Digital Media’s inquiry into polling in the UK, he challenged the sector’s performance in upholding standards in polling.

Jane Frost, CBE, CEO of MRS said: “This is sad news indeed. David was a critical friend and an informed challenger of polling. He was very supportive of our communications and training efforts to improve the understanding and reporting of polls. I will miss his advice.”