Henry McLeish

McLeish joined the Scottish Labour Party in 1970. He was a local councillor on Kirkcaldy District Council from 1974 to 1977, and then on Fife Regional Council 1978 to 1987, fighting East Fife unsuccessfully in 1979. He served as leader of Fife Regional Council from 1982 until his election as Labour MP for Central Fife at the 1987 General Election.

In the end of the 1980s and into the 1990s, McLeish was a Labour shadow spokesman for several portfolios, including education and employment 1988 to 1989, employment and training 1989 to 1992, shadow Scottish Office Minister of State 1992 to 1994, shadow Minister of Transport 1994 to 1995, shadow Minister of Health 1995 to 1996, and shadow Minister of Social Security 1996 to 1997.

When Labour came to power in May 1997, McLeish was appointed as a Minister of State for Scotland, with responsibility for home affairs and devolution.

As Donald Dewar's right-hand man in Westminster, McLeish helped secure devolution for Scotland and manoeuvre the Scotland Act through the Westminster Parliament. After the creation of the Scottish Parliament in May 1999, McLeish was elected as MSP for Fife Central and became Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning.

After Dewar's death in October 2000, McLeish defeated his rival Jack McConnell by 44 votes to 36 in the race to become the second First Minister.[4] The ballot was held amongst a restricted electorate of Labour MSPs and members of Scottish Labour's national executive, because there was insufficient time for a full election to be held.[4]

Professor John Curtice, a prominent political analyst, commented that McLeish would not have the "kind of authority" that Donald Dewar enjoyed.[4] He travelled widely, particularly in the United States. He managed several task forces designed to improve the competitiveness of Scottish industry, especially the PILOT project for Scottish oil and gas supply chains.

He was embarrassed when an open microphone recorded him with Helen Liddell in a television studio, describing Scottish Secretary John Reid as "a patronising bastard" and said of his colleague, Brian Wilson, "Brian is supposed to be in charge of Africa but he spends most of his time in bloody Dublin. He is a liability".[5]

Whilst in government serving as First Minister, McLeish oversaw and implemented the free personal care for the elderly scheme[6] as well as the implementation of the McCrone Agreement for education teachers in Scotland.[7]

McLeish resigned as First Minister in November 2001, amid a scandal involving allegations he sub let part of his tax subsidised Westminster constituency office without it having been registered in the register of interests kept in the Parliamentary office. The press called the affair Officegate. Though McLeish could not have personally benefited financially from the oversight, he undertook to repay the £36,000 rental income, and resigned to allow the Scottish Labour Party a clean break to prepare for the 2003 Scottish Parliament election.[8] McLeish did not seek re-election.

In August 2007, he was appointed to the Scottish Broadcasting Commission (established by the Scottish Government). He also chaired the Scottish Prisons Commission, which produced a report into sentencing and the criminal justice system in 2008 entitled "Scotland's Choice".[9] McLeish concluded a "major report" on the state of football in Scotland, which had been commissioned by the Scottish Football Association, in April 2010.[10]

McLeish claimed that Scottish football was "underachieving, under performing and under funded" at a press conference to unveil the report.[10]

In the run up to the referendum on Scottish independence on 18 September 2014, there was much media and public speculation towards whether McLeish backed a "No" vote to remain within the United Kingdom, or whether he supported a "Yes" vote in order to create an independent separate sovereign Scotland.

Speculation from the public came from media articles in which McLeish was reported to be talking negatively about the prospect of a "No" vote to remain within the union, but was later reported as stating it would be "near impossible" to vote Yes in the referendum.[11]

Following the 2016 UK referendum on EU membership, in which the majority of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, but the majority of the Scottish electorate voted to remain in the EU, McLeish has since claimed that he would support and campaign for an independent Scottish sovereign state and campaign for it to be a fully functioning member and participate fully within the European Union despite Brexit.[12]