Tony Banks, the outspoken and controversial former UK minister for sport, has died after suffering a stroke while on holiday in the United States.

Banks, 62, was minister for sport and heritage in Tony Blair's first Labour government in 1997, although he resigned his post after two years in order to become an envoy for the ill-fated 2006 World Cup bid.

A passionate sports fan, especially of Chelsea FC, Banks enjoyed a somewhat love-hate relationship with the arts, especially in his time at the Greater London Council (GLC), when he campaigned hard against what he termed "elitist" art – once stopping a grant for the Royal Opera House.

An East End politician for 22 years, he was made a Labour peer. when he took the title Lord Stratford.

Prime Minister Tony Blair led tributes to Banks: "I was proud to have him as a sports minister in the first term of the government and, like everyone in the Labour party, will miss him and regret he was taken from us so soon.”