|
|
|
|
John Smith (UK politician)
|
| |
|
| |
John Smith QC (13 September 1938–12 May 1994) was a Scottish politician who served as leader of the Labour Party from July 1992 until his sudden and unexpected death from a heart attack.
Smith was born in Dalmally, the son of a Headmaster, and grew up in Ardrishaig in Argyll and Bute. He joined the Labour Party in 1956. He attended Dunoon Grammar School (Dunoon, Cowal), lodging in the town with a landlady and going home only during the holidays, before enrolling at the University of Glasgow, where he studied History from the Autumn of 1956 to 1959, and then Law, from 1959 to 1962.
He became involved in debating with the Glasgow University Dialectic Society and at the Glasgow University Union and, in 1962, won The Observer Mace debating championship with Donald Dewar.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'John Smith (UK politician)' Start a new discussion about 'John Smith (UK politician)' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
John Smith QC (13 September 1938–12 May 1994) was a Scottish politician who served as leader of the Labour Party from July 1992 until his sudden and unexpected death from a heart attack.
Early life
John Smith was born in Dalmally, the son of a Headmaster, and grew up in Ardrishaig in Argyll and Bute. He joined the Labour Party in 1956. He attended Dunoon Grammar School (Dunoon, Cowal), lodging in the town with a landlady and going home only during the holidays, before enrolling at the University of Glasgow, where he studied History from the Autumn of 1956 to 1959, and then Law, from 1959 to 1962.
He became involved in debating with the Glasgow University Dialectic Society and at the Glasgow University Union and, in 1962, won The Observer Mace debating championship with Donald Dewar. After his death, this was renamed the John Smith Memorial Mace in his honour.
After graduating, Smith practised for a year as a solicitor. He was then elected to the Faculty of Advocates, and later to the United Kingdom Parliament.
Member of Parliament
Smith first stood as a Labour parliamentary candidate at a by-election in 1961 in the East Fife constituency, and contested that seat again in the 1964 General Election. At the 1970 general election he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for North Lanarkshire. In 1971 for the only time in his parliamentary career, he defied the Labour whips and voted in favour of entry to the EEC, along with Roy Hattersley and David Owen.
In government
In October 1974, Harold Wilson offered him the post of Solicitor General for Scotland. Smith turned it down and was instead made an Under-Secretary of state at the Department of Energy. In December 1975 he was made a Minister of State. When James Callaghan became Prime Minister, Smith became a Minister of State at the Privy Council Office. He piloted the highly controversial devolution proposals for Scotland and Wales through the House of Commons. His handling of this impressed Callaghan, and in November 1978, when Edmund Dell retired, Smith was appointed as Secretary of State for Trade. He served in that post until the 1979 General Election, becoming the youngest member of the cabinet.
Shadow Cabinet
In the early 1980s Smith was Shadow Energy Secretary. He became a QC in 1983, the same year that the constituency became Monklands East. Smith acted as Roy Hattersley's campaign manager for the party leadership election in October 1983 and after serving a year as Shadow Employment Secretary, was Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry between late 1984 and 1987.
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
John Smith was appointed Shadow Chancellor by Neil Kinnock in June 1987 after Party's General Election defeat. However, he suffered a heart attack whilst Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer on 9 October 1988 and was forced to spend three months away from Westminster to recover. On that occasion, he had complained of chest pains the night before, and had to be persuaded to cancel a flight to London so he could go to hospital for a check up. He was examined at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary by an ECG. The doctor who examined him said "Whatever it is, we don't think it is your heart". Then Smith suddenly collapsed and was briefly unconscious before coming around. He spent three days in intensive care before leaving hospital on 20 October 1988, to make a full recovery.
Smith made modifications to his lifestyle by going on a 1,000 calorie diet, cutting down on rich foods and fine wines, giving up smoking and taking up Munro bagging and by the time of his death he had succeeded in climbing 108 of the 277 Scottish Munros (mountains over 3,000 feet above sea level at the summit). His weight dropped from 15 stone 5 pounds (98 kg) at the time of the first heart attack, to 12 stone 10 pounds (81 kg) when he returned to Parliament on 23 January 1989.
Despite a quiet, modest manner, and his politically moderate stance, he was a witty, often scathing speaker. Smith was named as Parliamentarian of the year twice; the first time in November 1986 for his performances during the Westland controversy, during which Leon Brittan resigned and the second was in November 1989 for taking Nigel Lawson to task over the state of the economy and over his difficult relationship with Sir Alan Walters, the Prime Minister's Economic Adviser. Smith made two notably witty attacks on Lawson that year. On 7 June 1989 he sang the theme tune for the soap Neighbours at the dispatch box, lampooning the differences between Lawson and Sir Alan Walters, who was critical of Lawson's policies and who Thatcher refused to sack. Then on 24 October he made another scathing attack on the differences. Two days later, Lawson resigned, followed shortly afterwards by Sir Alan.
Leader of the Opposition
Following Labour's fourth successive defeat at the 1992 general election, Neil Kinnock resigned as leader and John Smith was elected Labour leader.
In September 1992, he made his maiden speech as party leader, about the Government's ERM debacle eight days earlier, saying that John Major was "The devalued Prime Minister of a devalued Government". At the party conference he referred to Major and Norman Lamont as being the Laurel and Hardy of British politics.
In a June 1993 debate, Smith again savaged the Conservative Government, saying that under John Major's premiership, "The man with the non-midas touch is in charge. It is no wonder that we live in a country where the Grand National does not start and hotels fall into the sea". During the same debate, Smith referred to a recent Government defeat in the Newbury by-election, a poor showing in the local elections, and a subsequent Cabinet reshuffle by saying that, "If we were to offer that tale of events to the BBC Light Entertainment Department as a script for a programme, I think that the producers of Yes Minister would have turned it down as hopelessly over the top. It might have even been too much for "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em"". He also performed very well in a vote of confidence in the Conservative government in July 1993.
Despite his dispatch box successes, (Smith was always more effective in the House of Commons than on Platforms or at Prime Minister's Question Time, though he began to improve at the latter during the final months of his life), Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were, under Smith's leadership, restless and anxious in private that the party had adopted a "one more heave" approach and had become overly cautious in tackling the legacy of "tax and spend".
Despite this, during his time as leader of the Labour Party he abolished the trade union block vote at Labour party conferences, and replaced it with "one member one vote" at the 1993 party conference and committed a future Labour government to establishing a Scottish Parliament, a policy which was followed through by his successors (most notably his close friend Donald Dewar) after his death. Also, during his time as leader, the Labour party gained a significant lead in the polls over the Conservatives and on 5 May 1994 the Conservatives received a severe drubbing in the council elections in the UK. Their opinion poll lead was 23% in early May 1994.
Death
On the evening of 11 May 1994, John Smith made a speech at a fund raising dinner at Park Lane Hotel with around 500 people present, saying famously "The opportunity to serve our country - that is all we ask". The following morning, at 8.05am, whilst in his Barbican flat, Smith suffered a massive heart attack. His wife phoned an ambulance and he was rushed to Saint Bartholomew's Hospital where he died at 9.15am on 12 May 1994 having never regained consciousness. Only two weeks before his death, on 28 April, Smith had visited the same accident and emergency department to campaign against its proposed closure. The very doctor who served as his tour guide Mike Besser, two weeks later tried, desperately and unsuccessfully, to save Smith's life.
In response to his death, John Major made a fitting tribute in the House of Commons to Smith, culminating in the now well known line, that John Smith "would share a drink: sometimes tea, sometimes not tea". It was reported that there was weeping in the chamber.
On the day of his death, the BBC 9 o'clock news was extended to an hour as opposed to the usual half hour. This replaced the medical drama which was due to follow at 9:30, ironically entitled "Cardiac Arrest".
On 20 May 1994, after a funeral in Cluny Parish Church, Edinburgh attended by 900 people and after which 3,000 people lined the streets, John Smith was buried in a private family funeral on the island of Iona, at the sacred burial ground of Reilig Odhráin, which contains the graves of several Scottish kings as well as monarchs of Ireland, Norway and France.. On 14 July 1994, his memorial service was attended in Westminster Abbey by over 2,000 people. The Archbishop of Canterbury gave an address.
Following Smith's death, the Labour Party renamed its party headquarters in Walworth Road John Smith House in his memory.
Aftermath
John Smith, ironically for someone who was on the Gaitskellite wing of the party, has become an iconic figure for Labour's left-wing and centre since his death, because of his perceived traditionalist approach and the contrasts between his leadership and those of Neil Kinnock and Tony Blair. This perception has also arisen as many on the Labour left have argued that the party had swung too far to the right under Blair's leadership. Smith, though he introduced OMOV, refused to amend Clause IV because he thought it was irrelevant. It was amended on 29 April 1995.
John Smith's biographer, Mark Stuart, claimed that Smith could have won Labour a Parliamentary victory in 1997 on a similar scale to that achieved by Tony Blair due to the combination of the Black Wednesday debacle and ongoing Conservative divisions over Europe between 1992 and 1997; however, Stuart argues that the lack of a Blair effect would have meant that the Conservative Party would have held slightly over 200 seats in the House of Commons, leaving the Conservatives in a position closer to Labour in 1983 than to the actual Conservative result in 1997.
Personal life
John Smith married Elizabeth Bennett on 5 July 1967. They had three daughters. Elizabeth Smith was created Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill in 1995. His daughter, Sarah Smith, is Washington correspondent for Channel 4 news.
Further reading
|
| |
|
|
.gif)
