Arthur Latham was born on 14 August 1930 and was educated in Romford, Essex. He first worked for the Labour party during the 1945 General Election and subsequently joined the party, becoming a local councillor in Essex aged just 21 and eventually leading the Labour group. In 1951 he married his first wife, Margaret Green, and they had two children.
His first Parliamentary contest was against Winston Churchill in Woodford in 1959, and he later lost to Martin Redmayne, the Conservative Chief Whip in Rushcliffe, 1964. Not planning to stand again, he stood and won the 1969 by-election in Paddington North following the death of Ben Parkin. His support for Bernadette Devlin led to an interest in Northern Ireland and he campaigned against the Vietnam War. He held the new seat of Paddington between 1974 and 1979, losing by just 106 votes in 1979.
After his defeat he again became a London Councillor, becoming the leader of Havering Council between 1990 and 1996. He married for a second time, to Caroline Warren, in 2001, and left the Labour party in 2003. He died in December 2016.