Piratin was the son of a small local tradesman and attended
Davenant Foundation School in
Whitechapel. He became a
Communist activist,
anti-fascist and defender of tenants' rights, a leading member of the Stepney Tenants Defence League. Of
Jewish origin, he was the leader of the opposition to
Oswald Mosley's
antisemitism and his
British Union of Fascists' marches through
East London. Piratin was elected to
Stepney Borough Council in 1937 and was Chairman of the borough's
Communist Party. During
World War II, he gained further notice by leading 100 people to shelter from the
Blitz in the basement of the
Savoy Hotel, to persuade the Government to open the
London Underground stations to anyone sheltering from the bombing, a practice which the Government had previously ruled out, but which then became widespread. Piratin was elected at the
1945 General Election as
Member of Parliament (MP) for
Mile End in
Stepney, becoming one of the last two CPGB MPs. In Parliament, he worked with several left-wing Labour MPs, some of whom would be expelled by their party as crypto-communists and form the
Labour Independent Group. He was defeated when he stood for
re-election in 1950 in the new constituency of
Stepney; his old seat of Mile End had been abolished due to boundary changes. Until 1957, Piratin was the circulation manager of the communist newspaper
The Daily Worker, but he left early that year, ostensibly over a matter of process. However, in 1991 he told Alison Macleod about his doubts at the time: "In 1956, Phil said, he drove to Oxford, to defend the Party line on
Hungary at a meeting of undergraduates. He got as far as outside the hall, stopped – and drove home again. Phil remained in the Party, but he never again worked for it full time. Piratin later became a businessman". ==Publications==