John Smith | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Smith in 1989 | |||||||||||||||
| Leader of the Opposition | |||||||||||||||
| In office 18 July 1992 – 12 May 1994 | |||||||||||||||
| Monarch | Elizabeth II | ||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | John Major | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Neil Kinnock | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Margaret Beckett | ||||||||||||||
| Leader of the Labour Party | |||||||||||||||
| In office 18 July 1992 – 12 May 1994 | |||||||||||||||
| Deputy | Margaret Beckett | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Neil Kinnock | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Tony Blair[a] | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Secretary of State for Trade | |||||||||||||||
| In office 11 November 1978 – 4 May 1979 | |||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | James Callaghan | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Edmund Dell | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | John Nott | ||||||||||||||
| Minister of State for the Privy Council Office | |||||||||||||||
| In office 8 April 1976 – 11 November 1978 | |||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | James Callaghan | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | The Lord Crowther-Hunt | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | The Baroness Birk | ||||||||||||||
| Minister of State for Energy | |||||||||||||||
| In office 4 December 1975 – 8 April 1976 | |||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Harold Wilson | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | The Lord Balogh | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Dickson Mabon | ||||||||||||||
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy | |||||||||||||||
| In office 18 October 1974 – 4 December 1975 | |||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Harold Wilson | ||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Gavin Strang | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | The Lord Lovell-Davis | ||||||||||||||
| Member of Parliament forMonklands East North Lanarkshire (1970–1983) | |||||||||||||||
| In office 18 June 1970 – 12 May 1994 | |||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Margaret Herbison | ||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Helen Liddell | ||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||
| Born | (1938-09-13)13 September 1938 | ||||||||||||||
| Died | 12 May 1994(1994-05-12) (aged 55) London, England | ||||||||||||||
| Resting place | Reilig Odhráin,Iona, Scotland | ||||||||||||||
| Party | Labour | ||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||
| Children | 3, includingSarah andCatherine | ||||||||||||||
| Education | Dunoon Grammar School | ||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Glasgow | ||||||||||||||
| Signature |  | ||||||||||||||
John Smith (13 September 1938 – 12 May 1994) was a Scottish politician who wasLeader of the Opposition andLeader of the Labour Party from July 1992 until his death in May 1994. He was alsoMember of Parliament (MP) forMonklands East.
Smith first entered Parliament in 1970 and, following junior ministerial roles asMinister of State for Energy (1975–1976) and Minister of State for thePrivy Council Office (1976–1978), he entered theCabinet towards the end ofJames Callaghan's tenure as Prime Minister, asSecretary of State for Trade and President of the Board of Trade (1978–1979). During Labour's time in Opposition toMargaret Thatcher's Conservative government, he rose through theShadow Cabinet, asShadow Secretary of State for Trade (1979–1982),Energy (1982–1983),Employment (1983–1984),Trade and Industry (1984–1987) andShadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (1987–1992).
After Labour leaderNeil Kinnock resigned following the Party's surprise loss in the1992 general election to new Conservative leaderJohn Major, Smith was elected his successor in July 1992. He continued Kinnock's moves to reform Labour, abolishing the trade unionblock vote atLabour Party Conferences and replacing it with "one member, one vote" at the 1993 party conference. However, his overall cautious approach to reform, which was dubbed "one more heave", sought to avoid controversy and win the next election by capitalising on the unpopularity of the Conservative government. This frustratedTony Blair andGordon Brown, as well asPeter Mandelson. Following Smith's sudden death in May 1994, he was succeeded as leader by Blair, who led the party to victory atthe next general election in 1997.
Smith was born at Baddarroch,Dalmally,Argyll, the eldest of three children of Sarah Cameron, née Scott (29 July 1910 – 11 January 1997), and Archibald Leitch Smith (18 June 1907 – 1981).[1] At the time of Smith's birth, his father was schoolmaster atPortnahaven,Islay; however, two years later he became the headmaster of the primary school atArdrishaig, Argyll, which Smith went on to attend.[2] From September 1952, Smith attendedDunoon Grammar School, lodging in the town with a landlady and going home during the school holidays, before enrolling at theUniversity of Glasgow. He studied History from 1956 to 1959, and thenLaw. He joined the Labour Party in 1955.[1]
Smith became involved indebating with theGlasgow University Dialectic Society and theGlasgow University Union, and in 1962 wonThe Observer Mace debating competition, speaking with Gordon Hunter. In 1995, following his death, the competition was renamed theJohn Smith Memorial Mace in his honour.
In 1963, he became a solicitor and then in 1967, anadvocate at theScottish bar, supplementing his income by working as alibel lawyer for theDaily Record and theSunday Mail.[1]
Smith first stood as a Labour parliamentary candidate aged 23 at aby-election in 1961 in theEast Fife constituency; he contested that seat again in the1964 general election. As it was asafe seat for theUnionist Party (who at the time ran in place of theConservatives), Smith came second by some distance on both occasions. At the1970 general election he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) forNorth Lanarkshire, succeedingPeggy Herbison.[3] Smith made hismaiden speech on 10 November 1970, opposing the Conservative government'sFamily Income Supplements Act 1970.[4] On 28 October 1971, Smith defied the Labour whips in joining Labour MPs led byRoy Jenkins to vote in favour of entry to theEuropean Communities.[5] These includedRoy Hattersley,Shirley Williams,Bill Rodgers andDavid Owen, with all of whom he was later to sit in theCallaghan cabinet.
In February 1974, Smith declinedHarold Wilson's offer of the office ofSolicitor General for Scotland, not wishing his political career to become side-lined as a law officer.[6] In October, he was made anUnder-Secretary of State at theDepartment of Energy.[7] In December 1975, he was made aMinister of State.[8] Smith supportedJames Callaghan in theLabour Party leadership election after Wilson resigned in April 1976.[9] When Callaghan became Prime Minister, Smith became aMinister of State at thePrivy Council Office, serving with Labour's Deputy leader,Michael Foot, theLord President of the Council andLeader of the House of Commons.[10] In this position, Smith piloted the highly controversialdevolution proposals forScotland andWales through theHouse of Commons.[11]
Smith's adroit handling of these proposals impressed Callaghan, and in November 1978, whenEdmund Dell retired, Callaghan appointed SmithSecretary of State for Trade.[12] In this post, Smith was the youngest member of the cabinet, and served there until the1979 general election.
Smith was voted to the Shadow Cabinet in the elections of June 1979 and would be re-elected every year until 1992.[13] Smith becameShadow Energy Secretary. In theLabour leadership election of November 1980, Smith voted forDenis Healey overMichael Foot.[13] Smith remained in the Labour Party after figures on the right of the party formed the breakawaySocial Democratic Party, remarking: "I am comfortable with the unions. They aren't. That's the big difference".[14] Smith voted for Healey in thedeputy leadership election of September 1981.[15]
He became aQC in 1983, the same year that his constituency becameMonklands East. During the1983 general election, Smith concentrated on unemployment, arguing that the Conservatives had caused deindustrialisation and that a Labour government would increase investment, and therefore employment.[16] Smith received over 50 per cent of the vote in Monklands East, but Labour lost badly nationally. Smith then acted asRoy Hattersley's campaign manager in theleadership election and thedeputy leadership election.[17] After serving a year asShadow Employment Secretary, Smith wasShadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry between late 1984 and 1987.
Smith was appointed Shadow Chancellor byNeil Kinnock in July 1987 following the Labour Party's general election defeat.[18] 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: first in November 1986 for his performances during theWestland controversy during whichLeon Brittan resigned, and the second time in November 1989 for takingNigel Lawson to task over the state of the economy and over his difficult relationship with SirAlan Walters, the Prime Minister's economic adviser.[19] Smith made two notably witty attacks on Lawson that year. On 7 June 1989, he sang the theme tune for the soapNeighbours at the dispatch box, lampooning the differences between Lawson and Walters, who was critical of Lawson's policies but whom Thatcher refused to sack.[20] Then, on 24 October, he made another scathing attack on the differences.[21] Two days later, Lawson resigned, followed shortly afterwards by Walters.[22]
Smith suffered a heart attack 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 theEdinburgh Royal Infirmary by anECG. The doctor who examined him said, "Whatever it is, we don't think it is your heart".[citation needed] 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 and made a full recovery.
Smith made modifications to his lifestyle by going on a diet of 1,000 calories, cutting down on rich foods and fine wines, giving up smoking and taking upMunro bagging. 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.[citation needed]
Following Labour's fourth consecutive defeat at thegeneral election of April 1992,Neil Kinnock resigned as leader and Smithwas elected Labour leader.[23]
Although Labour had now been out of power for 13 years, their performance in the 1992 election had been much better than in the previous three. They had cut the Conservative majority from 102 seats to 21, and for most of the three years leading up to the election, opinion polls had indicated that Labour were more likely to win the election than the Conservatives. The resignation of long-serving but increasingly unpopular Conservative prime ministerMargaret Thatcher, and the well-received election ofJohn Major as her successor, had seen the comfortable Labour lead in the opinion polls wiped out and in the 17 months leading up to the election, its outcome had become much harder to predict. Much of the blame had been placed on Labour's "shadow budget" drawn up by Smith, which included raising the top rate of income tax from 40p in the pound to 50p, and the Conservative election campaign was centred on warning voters that they would face higher taxes under a Labour government.[24]
In September 1992, Smith made his maiden Commons speech as party leader, in which he attacked the government'sERM debacle eight days earlier – an event which was seen by many observers as playing a large part in determining the outcome of the next general election, long before it was even on the political horizon, as from that point onwards the Labour Party was ascendant in the opinion polls, winning several seats from the Conservatives in by-elections (eventually even attracting a Conservative MP to defect to Labour) and trouncing them in local council elections.
In this speech, he referred toJohn Major as "the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued Government".[25] At Labour's party conference, Smith branded Major andNorman Lamont the "Laurel and Hardy of British politics". This echoed his attacks on Major's government made before the 1992 election (while he was still shadow chancellor), most memorably when he labelled "irresponsible" Conservative plans for cutting income tax to 20 per cent,[26] and joked at a Labour Partyrally in Sheffield that the Conservatives would have a box-office disaster with "Honey, I Shrunk the Economy" – in reference to the recentDisney motion pictureHoney, I Shrunk the Kids – mocking therecession which was plaguing the British economy at the time.[27]
In a June 1993 debate, Smith again savaged the Conservative government, saying that underJohn Major's premiership, "the man with the non-Midas touch is in charge. It is no wonder that we live in a country where theGrand National does not start and hotels fall into the sea" (in reference to the1993 Grand National, which was cancelled after afalse start, and toHolbeck Hall Hotel inScarborough, which had recently collapsed off a cliff).[28]
During the same debate, Smith commented on a recent government defeat in theNewbury by-election to theLiberal Democrats, 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 ofYes Minister would have turned it down as hopelessly over the top. It might have even been too much forSome Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em".[29] In the same speech, Smith also attacked the Conservatives' broken election promises (in particular Lamont's recent Budget decision to imposeVAT on domestic energy bills) – claiming he possessed the last copy of a 1992 policy document "to escape the Central Office shredder". He also performed very well in the July 1993motion of confidence debate on the Conservative government.
Despite his dispatch box successes (Smith was always more effective in theHouse of Commons than on platforms or atPrime Minister's Questions, though he began to improve at the latter towards the end of his life),Tony Blair andGordon Brown were, under Smith's leadership, restless and privately anxious that the party had adopted a "One more heave" approach and had become over-cautious in tackling the legacy of "tax and spend".[30]
Despite this, during his time as leader of the Labour Party, Smith abolished the trade unionblock vote atLabour Party Conferences and replaced it with "One member, one vote" at the 1993 party conference.[31] He also committed a future Labour government to establishing aScottish Parliament, an aim fulfilled by his successors following his death (most notably his close friendDonald Dewar). Smith was also a committed British Unionist. During Smith's tenure as leader the Labour Party gained a significant lead in the polls over theConservatives; on 5 May 1994, one week before Smith's death, the Conservatives suffered a major defeat in the British council elections, their worst in over 30 years. This happened in spite of the strong economic recovery and reduction of unemployment which had followed the declaration of the recession's end in April 1993.[32] In May 1994, a poll estimated that the Labour Party was on average 23 points ahead of the Conservative Party.
On the evening of 11 May 1994, with around 500 people present, Smith made a speech at a fundraising dinner atPark Lane Hotel, London, saying "The opportunity to serve our country—that is all we ask".[33] At 8:05am the following morning, whilst in hisBarbican flat, Smith suffered a fatal heart attack. His wife phoned an ambulance and he was taken toSt Bartholomew's Hospital where he died at 9:15am, having never regained consciousness. On 28 April, a fortnight before his death, Smith had visited the same accident and emergency department to campaign against its proposed closure; it had also been the subject of his questions atPrime Minister's Questions later that day.[34]The doctor who had served as his tour guide, Professor Mike Besser, tried unsuccessfully to save Smith's life.
In response to his death, theSpeaker of the House of CommonsBetty Boothroyd recalled Parliament to give MPs the opportunity to pay tribute to him. Prime MinisterJohn Major was the first who paid tribute, including the line that he and Smith "would share a drink: sometimes tea, sometimes not tea".[35][36] It was reported that there was weeping in the chamber.[37] MPs from across the house also paid tribute to him, includingMargaret Beckett,Paddy Ashdown,Neil Kinnock andDennis Skinner.
On the day of his death, theBBC Nine 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, coincidentally entitledCardiac Arrest. DuringQuestion Time that evening, panellists paid tribute to Smith instead of debating.George Robertson andMenzies Campbell were among the participants.
On 20 May 1994, following a public funeral service in Cluny Parish Church,Edinburgh, which was attended by almost 1,000 people,[38] Smith was buried in a private family service on the island ofIona, at the sacred burial ground of Reilig Odhráin, where many early Scottish and Norse kings are said to be buried.[39][40] His grave is marked with an epitaph quoting the Fourth Epistle ofAn Essay on Man byAlexander Pope: "An honest man's the noblest work of God".[41] His close friendDonald Dewar acted as one of Smith's pallbearers. On 14 July 1994, a memorial service for Smith took place atWestminster Abbey and was attended by over 2,000 people. TheArchbishop of Canterbury,George Carey, gave an address.[42]
Following Smith's death, the Labour Party renamed itsWalworth Road headquartersJohn Smith House in his memory.[43]Tony Blair, Smith's successor as Leader of the Labour Party, was an effective campaigner who capitalised on public mistrust of the Conservative Party to win a landslide victory at the1997 general election.
Smith's biographer, Mark Stuart, said that Smith could have won Labour a victory on a scale similar to that achieved by Blair because of the combination of theBlack Wednesday debacle and internal Conservative Party divisions over Europe since 1992; estimating that, in the absence of the "Blair effect", the Conservative Party would have held slightly over 200 seats (rather than the 165 it actually won) in the House of Commons, leaving the Conservatives in a position similar to that of Labour following the1983 general election.[44]
Smith was married toElizabeth Bennett from 5 July 1967 until his death. Elizabeth Smith was created Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill in 1995. They had three daughters includingSarah Smith andCatherine Smith.[45]
Media related toJohn Smith (Labour Party leader) at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related to John Smith at Wikiquote| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forNorth Lanarkshire 1970–1983 | Constituency abolished |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forMonklands East 1983–1994 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for Trade and President of the Board of Trade 1978–1979 | Succeeded by |
| New office | Shadow Secretary of State for Trade 1979–1982 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Shadow Secretary of State for Energy 1982–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Shadow Secretary of State for Employment 1983–1984 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry 1984–1987 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer 1987–1992 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of the Opposition 1992–1994 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Leader of the Labour Party 1992–1994 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
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