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Brian David Henderson Wilson^[1]CBE (born 13 December 1948) is a formerScottish Labour Party politician. He wasMember of Parliament forCunninghame North from1987 until2005 and served as a minister of state from 1997 to 2003.

After standing down as a minister prior to his departure from Parliament, he was asked byTony Blair to act as the Prime Minister's Special Representative on Overseas Trade. Having continued to take an interest in trade promotion, he was appointed to the newly re-established UKBoard of Trade in 2017. He is also chairman of Harris Tweed Hebrides, a director ofCeltic Football Club and a visiting professor at theUniversity of Strathclyde.

Wilson was born in 1948 inDunoon, Scotland and educated at the co-educational, comprehensiveDunoon Grammar School. He then studied at theUniversity of Dundee andUniversity College, Cardiff - where he was one of the first intake of 16 to the first-ever postgraduate journalism course in the UK, run by Tom Hopkinson ofPicture Post fame. Wilson was the founding editor and publisher of theWest Highland Free Press which he established along with three friends from Dundee University. In his student days, they had worked together promoting entertainment. In a BBC Alba documentary on his career, Wilson described promoting Pink Floyd in Dunoon in September 1968 as "the apex of my career". The early days of theWest Highland Free Press were subsidised by revenue from entertainment promotion.

Founded in 1972, the newspaper was initially based atKyleakin, on the isle ofSkye, and continues to be published fromBroadford, Skye. Its uniqueness lay in the radicalism of its political content, particularly on matters relating to the ownership of land, and its role as a local newspaper. It is credited with having exerted a strong influence over political debate in theHighlands and Islands, and - along with other concurrent initiatives such as the 7.84 production,The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil and publication of John MacEwen's bookWho Owns Scotland? - restoring the land question to a place of prominence in Scottish politics. For his early work on theWest Highland Free Press, Wilson was made the first recipient of theNicholas Tomalin Memorial Award. He also wrote widely for national newspapers and, in 1977–78 he was involved inSeven Days, a political weekly in Scotland which folded after a few months.

Throughout the 1980s, one of his roles was as Scottish football correspondent for theGuardian, which led to him being invited to write the official history ofCeltic FC, the team he had supported since childhood. He appeared in the influential 1980s LWT documentary in the Credo series which highlighted sectarianism in Scottish football when Wilson called for UEFA and FIFA to force the SFA to bring an end to Rangers'sectarian employment policy.

He was a member of theScottish National Party for a short time in his teens, but shortly after the formation of theWest Highland Free Press, which was launched in April 1972, joined theLabour Party and was soon invited to stand as its candidate inRoss and Cromarty which he contested in October 1974. He stood in two other Highlands and Islands constituencies -Inverness-shire and theWestern Isles - in 1979 and 1983 respectively. An opponent ofdevolution, which he believed would work to the disadvantage of Scotland's more peripheral areas, in 1978 he was chairman of the "Labour Vote No Campaign", which called for a "no" vote in the1979 Scottish devolution referendum on whether to have aScottish Assembly. Wilson was part of a group known as the "HighlandLuxemburgists" (that includedMargaret Hope MacPherson andAllan Campbell McLean), who attempted each year at theparty conference to pass a resolution to bring thecrofts back into common ownership. However, the Labour Party leadership ignored the resolution and supported right of crofters to purchase their land.^[2]

Wilson was selected to fight a more winnable seat and was elected to serveCunninghame North constituency in 1987, winning the seat from theConservative Party, and successfully held the seat in the1992,1997 and2001 general elections. Inopposition, Wilson was spokesperson on election planning (1996–1997), trade and industry (1994–1995), transport (1992–1994 and 1995–1996)—where he was recognised as an effective Parliamentary opponent of rail privatisation— and on Scottish affairs (1988–1992).

In his first ministerial role, as Scottish Office Minister for Education and Industry, he had responsibility for the Highlands and Islands which allowed him to deliver on some of the issues he had campaigned for over a long period. He established the Community Land Unit and the Fund on which community buy-outs of crofting estates was based. He was Scotland's first designated Minister for Gaelic, initiating the process which led to the establishment of a Gaelic television channel. Along with the Irish President,Mary Robinson, he launchedIomairt Cholm Cille in an effort to bring closer together the Gaelic-speaking communities of Scotland and Ireland. As Scottish Education Minister, he took a particular interest in Special Educational Needs and established the Beattie Committee to bring forward proposals, many of which were subsequently introduced, to improve post-school provision and strengthen SEN links with Further Education colleges.

In 2001, Wilson briefly served at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office with responsibility for Africa.^[3] In 2003, he voted in favour of theIraq War.^[4] As Energy Minister from 2001 to 2003,^[5] he was a strong supporter of bothrenewable energy—which he had long championed as a journalist—andnuclear power,^[6] not least because of his familiarity withHunterston nuclear power stations in his own constituency. According to one's point of view, he is either credited or blamed for doing more than any other politician to "keep the nuclear option open" through the early years of the Labour government,^[6] when many of his colleagues were determined to kill it off once and for all in Britain.^{[citation needed]} As Energy Minister, Wilson always advocated what he termed a "balanced" power generation policy—including nuclear,coal pollution mitigation, natural gas and renewables—which eventually became the catch-phrase of government after his departure. Speaking at theInstitution of Civil Engineers in June 2008, he joked if he had remained in politics, he would have been "knocked down in the rush" as his former foes on the nuclear issue—including the likes ofGordon Brown andMargaret Beckett—adopted the same position.

As trade minister and subsequently, Wilson took a great deal of interest in Cuba which he visited on a number of occasions in an effort to improve political and trade links. He has written extensively in defence of Cuba and about his meetings withFidel Castro. Writing inThe Guardian about Castro's decision to step down as Cuban President, Wilson said he had "outwitted the United States and its 50-year obsession one last time" by ensuring an orderly transition in government while he was still alive. While trade minister, Wilson was also closely involved in defending the Scottish cashmere industry in the face of hostile trade measures by the United States, during the so-called "Banana Wars" (1999–2000).

In August 2004, he announced his intention to step down from politics at the2005 general election for family reasons.

Wilson holds directorships in a number of businesses and continues to publicly comment on British Government energy policy, particularly on the subject ofnuclear power, of which he is a supporter,^[6] and has written opinion pieces in national newspapers as well as appearing on television news programmes to air his views. Both as Energy Minister and subsequently, he has called for Britain to retain a balanced energy policy with contributions to our electricity needs from nuclear, renewables, coal pollution mitigation, and gas. He was also chair ofFlying Matters which advocated a pro-aviation response toclimate change. In April 2008, Wilson became a visiting professor in Media and Government atGlasgow Caledonian University. In September 2009, he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by theUniversity of the Highlands and Islands. Between 2009, and 2013, he was chair of Britain's Energy Coast, the economic development agency for West Cumbria. In 2017, he became a visiting professor at the University of Strathclyde. He was appointed a UK Business Ambassador under the coalition government in a non-political capacity in 2013 and continues to hold the role.

He has been closely identified with regeneration of theHarris Tweed industry in theIsle of Lewis, where he lives, and is chairman of Harris Tweed Hebrides who were named Textile Brand of the Year at the Vogue.comScottish Fashion Awards in both 2009 and 2011 as well as UK Textile Company of the Year at the UK Fashion and Textile Awards in 2013. He is also a director ofCeltic Football Club, which he has supported since childhood. Wilson wrote Celtic's official centenary history (Celtic, A Century With Honour, Collins Willow 1988) and more recently the Official History of Celtic to mark the club's 125th anniversary. Having maintained connections with Cuba, he is now chairman of Havana Energy, a UK-based company promoting renewable energy in Cuba which secured the first ever joint venture with the Cubans to build power stations fuelled by biomass from the sugar plantations. In April 2017, Wilson was present at Ciro Redondo in Cuba for the inauguration of the first of four power plants to be built by the JV, named Biopower, Havana Energy having partnered with the Shanghai Electric Company in the face of challenges presented by the US blockade of Cuba.

For his work with Harris Tweed Hebrides, Wilson was named Global Director of the Year at the Institute of Directors Scottish awards ceremony in February 2011. He was then named UK Global Director of the Year at IoD Awards in September 2011. Maintaining his long-standing interest in land reform, he was a director of Community Land Scotland, formed in 2010 as an umbrella body for community-owned estates covering 500,000 acres, mainly in the West Highlands and Islands. In 2013, he became a UK Business Ambassador and was asked by the Secretary of State for Scotland to carry out a review of Scottish exporting, which was published in 2014. He writes regular columns inThe Scotsman and other publications. Up until July 2015, he wrote regular columns for theWest Highland Free Press, which had been sold to its employees by the founders in 2008, and of which he had been the founding editor, but was controversially sacked^[7] when he defended fellow columnistDonald Macleod, who had written a piece about the spread of Islam in the UK.^[8] Wilson defended MacLeod's right to freedom of expression before he too was told in an e-mail from the editor his columns were no longer wanted. A third columnist, Maggie Cunningham, resigned in protest.

Wilson took an active role in opposing a "Yes" vote in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and spoke at many rallies of the "Just Say Naw" campaign alongsideGeorge Galloway.

He was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the2020 New Year Honours for services to charity and business in Scotland.^[9]

Wilson lives in Mangersta in theUig area of theIsle of Lewis, which is the home village of his wife, Joni Buchanan. They have three children - Mairi, Eoin and Ronan. Eoin hasDown's Syndrome and Wilson has spoken out and written strongly against "the assumption" testing to identify the condition in pregnancy is "an undisputed good", particularly when it is not accompanied by balanced advice on options thereafter.

• Privy Councillor (2003)
• non-executive director ofAmec Foster Wheeler Nuclear (October 2005)^[10]
• non-executive director ofCeltic plc
• Chair of the UK Operations Board ofAirtricity
• Chair ofFlying Matters (June 2007)^[11]
• Chair of Harris Tweed Hebrides

• "Mr Brian Wilson".House of Commons. UK Parliament.
• Hansard 1803–2005:contributions in Parliament by Brian Wilson
• Brian Wilson profile inThe Guardian
• TheyWorkForYou.com—Brian Wilson MP

• 1948 births
• Alumni of Cardiff University
• Alumni of the University of Dundee
• Celtic F.C. directors and chairmen
• Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
• Directors of football clubs in Scotland
• Living people
• Luxemburgists
• Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
• People educated at Dunoon Grammar School
• People from Dunoon
• Scottish Labour MPs
• UK MPs 1987–1992
• UK MPs 1992–1997
• UK MPs 1997–2001
• UK MPs 2001–2005
• People associated with North Ayrshire

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