Former Lib Dem chief Sir Menzies Campbell dies aged 84

Former Liberal Democrat chief Lord Menzies Campbell has died on the age of 84.

Ming as he was broadly identified, led the Liberal Democrats from 2006 to 2007 and was the MP for North East Fife at Westminster for 28 years.

In his first profession as a sprinter, he held the UK 100m report from 1967 to 1974 and ran within the 1964 Tokyo Olympics – being dubbed The Flying Scotsman.

Lib Dem chief Ed Davey described Campbell as “a devoted public servant and a real Liberal large”.

He stated: “His principled management opposing the Iraq Battle was a mark of his morality, braveness and knowledge.

“However greater than that, he was an extremely heat and caring good friend and colleague. We are going to miss him terribly.”

Campbell died peacefully in London following a interval of respite care. His grandson was with him.

His household stated certainly one of his last days was spent watching the Liberal Democrat convention, and having fun with watching video messages from political mates.

Campbell first stood as a Liberal Social gathering candidate in 1974, however didn’t win his constituency till 1987.

He made his identify because the social gathering’s overseas affairs spokesman, a place he held for 14 years and was a famend critic of the Iraq battle.

He turned a member of the Home of Lords in 2015. His official title was Baron Campbell of Pittenweem.

Expressing his condolences, Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney stated Campbell was one of many nation’s most “well-liked political figures”.

He stated Campbell was “a passionate believer in a greater Scotland” but additionally a robust internationalist – eager to construct consensus and discover frequent floor.

Swinney stated: “These coming into public service at this time might study a lot from his type – at all times forthright in talking up for what he believed in, however by no means something apart from respectful, courteous and well mannered to his political opponents.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat chief Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP stated Campbell was one of many “most revered politicians of his era”.

He stated: “The primary political factor I ever did was to ship leaflets for Ming on the morning of his first election to Parliament in 1987.

“He was my MP, he was my mentor and he was my good friend. From the Olympic monitor to the benches of Westminster, his contribution to public life will lengthy be remembered.”

Sir Nick Clegg, who succeeded him as Liberal Democrat chief, stated he had an incredible curiosity and experience in overseas affairs.

He stated he was fairly “in step” with mainstream coverage considering on this space, which made his intervention on the Iraq battle extra spectacular.

On a private stage, he stated he visited him earlier this month in a nursing residence and was struck by his “limitless, unqualfied devotion” to his late spouse Elspeth.

“He spoke about after they first met. It was fairly great. You would see him transported again to the primary time he set eyes on her,” he informed the BBC’s World at One.

Wendy Chamberlain, present MP for North East Fife, stated Campbell “remained a major determine” within the space.

She added: “His contributions to our communities, to the College of St Andrews, in addition to to Scotland and the UK had been immeasurable.

“Though he discovered the passing of his beloved Elspeth troublesome, fairly than retreat, till the final weeks of his life, he was nonetheless travelling to London to contribute within the Home of Lords.”

Born Walter Menzies Campbell on 22 Could 1941, Cambell was introduced up in a Glasgow tenement.

He was educated at Hillhead Excessive College and went on to the College of Glasgow, the place he was a up to date of each John Smith and Donald Dewar finding out Regulation and debating within the union.

He additionally attended Stanford College in California through the Vietnam Battle and later turned an advocate.

He was was referred to as to the Scottish bar in 1968 and made a QC (latterly KC) in 1982. The legislation gave him a profitable profession and he continued to practise all through his time in politics.

His spouse of greater than 50 years, Elspeth, died in June 2023 – he described her as his “fixed political companion, at all times my encouragement and perpetually my first line of defence”.

The couple had been married in June 1970, simply three months after first assembly.

Throughout his athletics profession, Campbell captained the British males’s crew on the 1966 Commonwealth Video games in Jamaica.

A yr later he set a brand new British 100m report of 10.2 seconds – beating a younger OJ Simpson within the course of. The report stood till 1972.

At one level he was generally known as “the quickest white man on the planet”.

Menzies Campbell’s contribution to our politics was far higher than his quick spell as social gathering chief suggests.

His was a particularly nicely knowledgeable voice on defence and overseas affairs which was central to the general public debate throughout and after the Iraq battle.

He and his late spouse Elspeth had been the very best of political firm with quite a lot of perception into the Westminster points and characters of the day.

In some ways Elspeth was extra bold for her husband than he was for himself. His interval as social gathering chief was not a cheerful one.

He was on the receiving finish of a persistent ageism – caricatured as a grandfatherly determine together with his greatest days behind him when put next with rival leaders like Tony Blair and David Cameron.

When showing on TV for interview he at all times insisted on sporting a tie as a result of he felt it was what his constituents would count on.

However I knew he’d given in to modernising advisers who wrongly thought they might reinvent his picture when one Sunday morning he appeared in our studio in an open-necked shirt. It was not lengthy earlier than he resigned.

It was his knowledge, expertise and courtesy that had been his best strengths and these had been undervalued qualities throughout his time on the prime.