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Sir Teddy Taylor | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Teddy Taylor in 2009 | |
| Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland | |
| In office 9 December 1976 – 4 May 1979 | |
| Leader | Margaret Thatcher |
| Preceded by | Alick Buchanan-Smith |
| Succeeded by | Bruce Millan |
| Member of Parliament forRochford and Southend East Southend East (1980–1997) | |
| In office 13 March 1980 – 11 April 2005 | |
| Preceded by | SirStephen McAdden |
| Succeeded by | James Duddridge |
| Member of Parliament forGlasgow Cathcart | |
| In office 15 October 1964 – 7 April 1979 | |
| Preceded by | John Henderson |
| Succeeded by | John Maxton |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Edward MacMillan Taylor (1937-04-18)18 April 1937 Glasgow, Scotland |
| Died | 20 September 2017(2017-09-20) (aged 80) Southend-on-Sea, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Other political affiliations | Unionist (until 1965) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | University of Glasgow |
Sir Edward MacMillan Taylor (18 April 1937 – 20 September 2017), known asTeddy Taylor, was a BritishConservative Party politician who was a Member of Parliament (MP) for forty years, from 1964 to 1979 forGlasgow Cathcart and from 1980 to 2005 forSouthend East.
He professedEuroscepticism all his life and was a leading member and vice-president of theConservative Monday Club.
Taylor was born inGlasgow.[1] After being educated at theHigh School of Glasgow and theUniversity of Glasgow, which he attended with futureLabour leaderJohn Smith, he worked as a journalist on theGlasgow Herald and served onGlasgow City Council from 1960.[1] He foughtGlasgow Springburn at the1959 general election, but he lost to Labour'sJohn Forman.[1]
He first entered Parliament in the1964 election as MP forGlasgow Cathcart, followingJohn Henderson's retirement. At the time he was theBaby of the House, as at 27 he was the youngest MP, although not for long asLiberalDavid Steel entered Parliament five months later at the age of 26.[1] Having served as an opposition MP until1970, he became aScottish Office minister inPrime MinisterEdward Heath'sgovernment. He resigned from this position in July 1971 in protest at the UK joining theEuropean Economic Community, which Heath enthusiastically supported. Because of his strong personal following, he held on to the working-class constituency of Glasgow Cathcart, one of only two Conservative seats in Glasgow in the 1970s, the other being the more affluentGlasgow Hillhead.[1]
As Opposition Front Bench Spokesman on Scottish Affairs, Taylor said in November 1974 that a general directive to theNational Coal Board should follow the guidelines of theSocial Contract in any wage settlement. He called theHarold Wilson-ledLabour government "thoroughly cowardly and hypocritical over the Social Contract" and asked the government spokesman in the House of Commons whether it was "just a sick joke". He was politically close toMargaret Thatcher and served inher shadow cabinet, asShadow Secretary of State for Scotland.
Whilst he was Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, the Conservatives stood on a policy staunchly againstScottish devolution. Although Taylor strongly agreed with this, he knew and warned Thatcher that by standing on a platform against devolution, which Labour were promising at the next election, that moderateSNP voters who favoured devolution but not necessarily independence would switch to Labour, hence endangering Taylor's marginal seat, which he had held by 1,757 votes inOctober 1974. He was expected to become Thatcher's Secretary of State for Scotland if he had held his seat at the1979 election. Twenty years later, during a Commons debate on devolution in 1999 at the prelude of theScottish Parliament, he said: "Unfortunately, as I warned Lady Thatcher, making the SNP vote disappear meant that the then Member of Parliament for Glasgow, Cathcart had to disappear as well. However, it was a good bargain for Scotland to get rid of the SNP and devolution, even if it meant that I had to go as well."[2] In any case, he was back in Parliament within a year of his defeat, although he would never serve in government.
He was a leading and early (pre-1966) young member of the oldConservative Monday Club, and was on the platform at the Club's very successful rally at the Scottish Conservative Party's annual conference atPerth on 17 May 1968. He was first co-opted onto the Club's Executive Council on 9 September 1968. He is listed in a Club circular as one of its members standing for Parliament in theGeneral Election on 9 June 1983, for Southend East, and was elected deputy Chairman of the Club on 23 June that year. He consistently opposed the EEC and the EU and campaigned for the UK to leave. He was a leading campaigner against joining theeuro and had also campaigned againstmetrication. Throughout his career he fought hard for the interests of British fishermen.
Taylor sought leave to introduce a bill in parliament in October 1974 to restorecapital punishment. The following January, referring to the murder of a London policeman by aProvisional Irish Republican Army gunman, he said that "the answer was return of capital punishment" and added that "if the police want arms, no government could now refuse". He was on the editorial board that prepared the Club's October 1985 Conservative Party Conference issue of their newspaper,Right Ahead, to which he contributed a lengthy article entitled "How Tories Are Subsidising the Soviet War Machine." In the mid-1980s he said, "Nelson Mandela should be shot."[3] On 30 March 1990, he was the guest speaker at the Club's Surrey branch 21st Anniversary Dinner and was still a Vice-President in 1992. He was guest-of-honour at the South East Essex Monday Club's Annual Dinner on 4 July 1997.[citation needed]
At the 1979 election, Scotland bucked the British trend by showing a slight swing from Conservative to Labour, and Taylor lost his seat, the only Conservative MP at that election (other than by-election victors) to do so. He had been widely expected to become the Secretary of State for Scotland. Taylor re-entered Parliament ata 1980 by-election forSouthend East following the death ofStephen McAdden and, from the1997 general election, representedRochford and Southend East. He did not serve in government after his return but received aknighthood in 1991.
Prior to being selected to fight the Southend by-election, Taylor had been a candidate for theRectorship of theUniversity of Dundee. He was a favourite to win but pulled out of the election at the last minute to contest the parliamentary seat.[4]
DuringJohn Major's government, he was one of theMaastricht Rebels and was temporarily expelled from the parliamentary party, although he was later reinstated. Taylor stood down at the2005 general election.
Taylor was interviewed in 2012 as part ofThe History of Parliament's oral history project.[5][6] Taylor campaigned for a 'leave' vote in the2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.[7]
In 1996 the USindustrial metal bandMinistry released the albumFilth Pig, which derives its name from Taylor describing the band's singerAl Jourgensen as a "filthy pig" in the Houses of Parliament.[8]
In 1970, Taylor married Sheila Duncan, and they had three children.[1]
Taylor was a fan ofBob Marley.[9]
Taylor's health declined at the end of his life due toAlzheimer's disease andchronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was a heavy smoker.[1] He died from complications of pneumonia andsepticaemia atSouthend University Hospital on 20 September 2017, at the age of 80.[1][10]
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| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forGlasgow Cathcart 1964 –1979 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forSouthend East 1980 –1997 | Constituency abolished |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forRochford and Southend East 1997 –2005 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Baby of the House 1964 – 1965 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
