John Smith (UK politician)

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For other persons named John Smith, see John Smith (disambiguation).

John Smith QC (September 13, 1938 – May 12, 1994) was a British politician who served as leader of the Labour Party from July 1992 until his sudden and unexpected death from a heart attack on 12 May 1994.

[edit] Biography

Born in Ardrishaig, Argyll and Bute. His teenage years were spent in Dunoon, Cowal, Argyll and Bute, and he attended Dunoon Grammar School before enroling at the University of Glasgow where he studied law. While at University he won the Observer Mace debating championship. After his death, this was renamed the John Smith Memorial Mace in his honour. He worked as an advocate before entering parliament for North Lanarkshire in 1970.

In the Labour government of the 1970s, Smith piloted the highly controversial devolution proposals for Scotland and Wales through the House of Commons. From 1978 until the government fell in 1979, he served as Secretary of State for Trade.

Despite a quiet, modest manner, and his politically moderate stance, he was a witty, often scathing speaker. He suffered a heart attack on 9 October 1988, whilst Shadow Chancellor, and lost a lot of weight in order not to risk further problems. His 'Shadow Budget' at the start of the 1992 general election was subsequently criticised as having contributed to Labour's surprise defeat. Following the defeat, he stood in the leadership election and was elected with a large majority.

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". 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. He is also understood to have laid much of the foundation for the Labour Party's victory at the 1997 General Election by launching, with Mo Mowlam, the party's so-called Prawn Cocktail Offensive.

His sudden and untimely death made way for young hopeful Shadow Home Secretary Tony Blair. John Smith was buried on the holy island of Iona, special permission having already been obtained. Following Smith's death, the Labour Party renamed its then party headquarters in Walworth Road to John Smith House in his memory.

Smith was a traditional figure of the Labour right and, as such, was seen by many as a conservative leader. 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".

In recent years, Smith has become somewhat iconic for Labour's left-wing because of his perceived traditionalist approach and the contrast between his leadership and that of Blair. This is highly 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: a counterfactual by his biographer, Mark Stuart, claimed that Smith could have won due to the combination of the 1992 ERM 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].

His wife Elizabeth was created Elizabeth Smith, Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill in 1995. His daughter, Sarah Smith, is a journalist and presents the news on the UK digital TV channel More4.

[edit] 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.

[edit] References

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by: Margaret Herbison	Member of Parliament for Lanarkshire North 1970–1983	Succeeded by: constituency abolished
Preceded by: constituency created	Member of Parliament for Monklands East 1983–1994	Succeeded by: Helen Liddell
Political offices
Preceded by: Edmund Emanuel Dell	Secretary of State for Trade 1978–1979	Succeeded by: John Nott
Preceded by: Roy Hattersley	Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer 1987–1992	Succeeded by: Gordon Brown
Preceded by: Neil Kinnock	Leader of the British Labour Party 1992–1994	Succeeded by: Margaret Beckett
	Leader of the Opposition 1992–1994

Leaders of the Labour Party
Keir Hardie, Arthur Henderson, George Nicoll Barnes, Ramsay MacDonald, Arthur Henderson, William Adamson, John Robert Clynes, Ramsay MacDonald, Arthur Henderson, George Lansbury, Clement Attlee, Hugh Gaitskell, George Alfred Brown, Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Michael Foot, Neil Kinnock, John Smith, Margaret Beckett, Tony Blair