Ex-Labour minister and MP Phil Woolas left huge six-figure sum for his wife after death aged 66 earlier this year

FORMER Labour minister Phil Woolas left nearly half a million pounds in his will, The Sun can reveal. Woolas, who served as immigration minister under Gordon Brown, died in March aged 66 after a battle with brain cancer. Former Labour minister Phil Woolas left nearly half a million pound sin his will Credit: Scott Hornby – The Sun Woolas died in March after a battle with brain cancer Credit: Times Newspapers Ltd The top Labour figure was infamously banned from Parliament in 2010 when a court found he had lied about his election opponent. Documents obtained by The Sun show he left his estate to his wife Tracey Allen. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! The couple’s West London home was also held in trust for their two sons after her death. Court records show Woolas left an estate worth £446,000, which was reduced to £420,000 after debts and costs were deducted. His will was signed in May 2021 and a grant was issued by the High Court last month. In the five-page document, Woolas placed his share of his family home in Brentford into a protection trust. It gives his widow the right to live there rent-free for life before it passes to sons Joshua and Jed in equal shares. The ex-minister also asked to be cremated. Most read in The Sun Woolas served as MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth between 1997 and 2010 and took ministerial jobs under both Tony Blair and Brown. He lost the seat in December 2010 after an election court found he had knowingly lied about Lib Dem rival Elwyn Watkins in that year’s general election. It meant he became the first MP to be disqualified from Parliament since 1911. Woolas had won the seat by just 103 votes. Labour won the resulting by-election but the scandal all but ended Woolas’s Westminster career as he was banned from office for three years. After leaving politics, he ran his own political consultancy firm. The former MP was also chairman of The Ace Centre, an Oldham charity supporting people with difficulties communicating, for more than 25 years. Sir Tony Blair led tributes to his former minister, calling him “an outstanding member of the New Labour government” and “a greatly respected and admired colleague.” Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown also penned a tribute to Mr Woolas and said: “Phil Woolas was a brilliant MP, a highly-effective minister and a very generous and popular friend who fought a brave struggle against an incurable cancer and will be sorely missed. “My thoughts are with his devoted wife Tracey and the whole family.” A statement attributed to his family and close friends announcing his death in March said: “For more than a year he battled the brain cancer, glioblastoma. “He leaves his wife Tracey, his sons Josh and Jed and a new grandson, and many friends and former colleagues who will all miss him greatly.”