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John Smith QC (13 September 1938 – 12 May 1994) was a Scottish politician who was Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from July 1992 until his death in May 1994. He was also Member of Parliament (MP) for Monklands East.
- The Man
- The Background
- Smith’s Charter 88 Lecture
- Smith’s Approach
- After The Speech
- The Contrast with Blair
- Looking Back After Brexit
- Postscript
Others campaigned for reform and helped develop the policies, but this in no way diminishes Smith’s individual role, drawn from his own experience and judgment. Having been responsible for the legislation for Scottish and Welsh parliaments he was well aware of the key issues long before most of us. I have known, in the sense of having lobbied and t...
At the zenith of Thatcherism, with the Lawson boom at its height, and after the 1987 election gave Thatcher her third successive victory, different groups sought an opposition that would change the nature of the game. The Scottish Constitutional Convention organised for a parliament in Edinburgh based on a Scottish claim of right; the Campaign for ...
Smith succeeded Kinnock and began his takeover of the Labour Party. In early 1993 he gave a speech to nurses. He told me that when he mentioned the need for human rights they burst into applause. He decided that the country was ready for what he wanted and he should strike. Smith had made Gordon Brown his shadow Chancellor and Tony Blair his shadow...
The speech itselfwas sweeping yet careful. “I believe we must replace the out-of-date idea of an all-powerful nation state with a new and dynamic framework of government.” He saw this as a “modern European state” based on “subsidiarity” and empowering “municipal, regional, national and European decision-making”. Smith was eloquent on the need for h...
After the speech, in response to questions, Smith went off script and there were two moments of special importance. The first was when he said, “We do have an elective dictatorship. I myself used to believe in the mysteries of the British Constitution. My experience over the last ten to twelve years, like many people, has caused me to change my min...
Aware that to call for a new constitution was too radical a step at that point he was happy to encourage discussion of it as a destination. The contrast with Blair is striking. Doubtless advised by Mandelson, Blair refused to allow any of the specific reforms to which he was committed to be projected as a new, overall settlement of any kind. Perhap...
Does Smith’s description of the UK as an elected dictatorship still hold for the way the British state is ruled after the Brexit referendum? It does. As Prime Minister Theresa May drafted and sent the Article 50 letter withdrawing the UK from the EU without a full Cabinet discussion of its contents. Later she ambushed the Cabinet at Chequers with h...
You might ask, why am I, a person of the left, praising Smith who was clearly a man of the centre right? The answer is that I concluded back in the early 1980s that it was impossible for there to be a successful left-wing (that is, democratic and egalitarian) government in Britain within the confines of the country’s ‘empire state’. Constitutional ...
The Labour leader John Smith has died in St Bartholomew's hospital in London after two serious heart attacks. The 55-year-old leader of the opposition suffered his first attack at his...
May 12, 1994 · JOHN SMITH, 1938-1994. Leader of the Opposition, 1992-1994. Educated Glasgow University. Advocate, Scottish Bar, 1967. Labour MP for Lanarkshire North, 1970-1983; for Monklands East,...
John Smith, politician and former leader of the Labour party, born 12 May 1994, died 13 September 1938
- Tam Dalyell
May 14, 2014 · On May 12th, 1994 John Smith, then the leader of the Labour Party, died suddenly and tragically at the young age of 55. Wyn Grant reflects on his political legacy and what might have been had things turned out differently.
May 10, 2024 · John Smith, who sadly died thirty years ago, is paradoxically a past Labour leader who is both highly revered but also often overlooked. He held the leadership for just under two years (from July 1992 to May 1994) but in that period committed the Labour Party to radical modernisation of Britain’s governance and democracy.
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