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'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 death from a heart attack on 12 May 1994.

Contents

Early life

Parliamentary career

Labour Party leader

Death

Personal life

Quote

Further reading

References

Early life

John Smith was born in Dalmally and grew up in Ardrishaig in Argyll and Bute. He joined the Labour Party in 1956. His father was a Headmaster and Smith's teenage years were spent in Dunoon, Cowal. He attended Dunoon Grammar School, lodging in the town with a landlady, going home only during the holidays, before enrolling at the University of Glasgow where he studied first History, between 1957 and 1960, and then Law, between 1960 and 1963. Having trained and indeed practised (for a year) as a solicitor, Smith was later elected to the Faculty of Advocates, before being elected to the United Kingdom Parliament.
Whilst still at University, in 1962, Smith, with Donald Dewar, won ''The Observer'' Mace debating championship. After his death, this was renamed the John Smith Memorial Mace in his honour.

Parliamentary career

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. He became a QC in 1983, the year that the constituency became Monklands East.
In October 1974, Harold Wilson offered him the post of Solicitor General for Scotland. Smith turned it down. Instead, he was made a 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.
In the early 1980s Smith was Shadow Energy Secretary. He 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 1984 and 1987.
Smith suffered a heart attack whilst Shadow Chancellor 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 collapsed. He had the good fortune to suffer the heart attack whilst in hospital. He left 11 days later and made a full recovery. Smith lost three stone in weight and made modifications to his lifestyle to prevent further problems, by cutting down on rich foods, fine wines and giving up smoking. He went on a 1,000 calorie diet and his weight dropped from 15 stones 5 pounds, his weight at the time of the heart attack, to 12 stones 10 pounds. Smith took up ''Munro bagging'' and by the time of his death he had succeeded in climbing 108 of the 277 Scottish Munros (mountain over 3,000 feet above sea level at the summit).
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, in November 1986 and November 1989. He won the first award for his performances during the Westland controversy, in which Leon Brittan resigned. The second was for taking Nigel Lawson to task over the state of the economy during 1989. Lawson himself resigned as Chancellor on 26 October 1989.

Labour Party leader

Follwing the defeat at the 1992 general election, Smith took over leadership of the Labour Party from Neil Kinnock.
In September 1992 he made a very effective speech about the Government's ERM debacle eight days earlier, in his maiden as party leader, saying that John Major was "The devalued Prime Minister of a devalued Government".
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. Is it any wonder we live in a country where Grand Nationals don't start and hotels fall into the sea?".
Despite his despatch box successes, (Smith was always more effective in the House of Commons than on Platforms) 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 was overly cautious in tackling the legacy of "tax and spend". During his brief 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. It was also during his time as leader, that the Labour party gained a significant lead in the polls over the Conservatives. He also 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.

Death

On the evening of 11 May 1994, John Smith made a speech at a fundraising 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 St Bartholomew's Hospital. He died there at 9.15am on 12 May 1994 never having 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. His death came at a time when it was widely believed he would become the next Prime Minister.
On 20 May, after a funeral in Cluny Parish Church, Edinburgh attended by 900 people and after which people lined the streets, John Smith was buried on the island of Iona, in a private family funeral. On 14 July his memorial service was attended in Westminster Abbey by over 2,000 people.
Following Smith's death, the Labour Party renamed its party headquarters in Walworth Road ''John Smith House'' in his memory.
In the years following his death, John Smith has become iconic for Labour's left-wing because of his perceived traditionalist approach and the contrast between his leadership and that of Blair. This is ironic given Smith's position as a leading figure on the right of the party, with some believing that since his death, Smith has been idealised by the left much as American Democrats idealised President John F. Kennedy in the years after his assassination.
It remains a moot point whether Smith could have led the Labour Party to an electoral victory on the scale that Blair did in 1997: It is widely believed he would have. A counterfactual by his biographer, Mark Stuart, claimed that Smith could have won 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 slightly over 200 Tory MPs may have been spared, leaving the Conservatives in a position closer to Labour in 1983 than to the actual Tory result in 1997^[1].

Personal life

John Smith married Elizabeth Bennett in July 1967. They had three daughters. Elizabeth Smith was created Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill in 1995. His daughter, Sarah Smith, is a journalist and presents the news on the UK digital TV channel More4.

Quote

: ''"The opportunity to serve our country - that is all we ask."''
:: —from his speech to a Labour fundraising dinner, May 11, 1994, the day before his death.

Further reading

★ Andy McSmith, ''John Smith: A Life 1938-1994'', (Mandarin, 1994).

★ Gordon Brown & James Naughtie, ''John Smith, Life and Soul of the Party'' Mainstream, 1994.

★ Christopher Bryant (ed), ''John Smith, An Appreciation'' Hodder & Stoughton, 1994.

★ Greg Rosen, ''Old Labour to New'', Politicos Publishing, 2005.

★ Mark Stuart, ''John Smith - A Life'', Politicos Publishing, 2005.

★ John Smith, ''Guiding Light: The Collected Speeches of John Smith'', Brian Brivati (Editor), Politicos Publishing, 2001.

References

1. Stuart, M. in Brack, D. and I. Dale (editors) (2003)''Prime Minister Portillo and other things that never happened'', Politico's Publishing