Tributes paid to Lord Maclennan of Rogart, a 'truly great man' who was far north MP for 35 years
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Tributes have been paid to Lord Maclennan of Rogart, the former far north Liberal Democrat MP, who has died aged 83. He will be remembered as a man of principle and integrity who, over the course of three-and-a-half decades, earned a deep and enduring respect for his commitment to the north Highlands and his tireless work on behalf of his constituents.
Known to close friends and colleagues as Bob, he was described as "a truly great man" with a rare ability to reach across the political divide to find consensus.
Initially a Labour MP, he defected in 1981 to become a founder member of the Social Democrat Party and was the last SDP leader before it merged with the Liberal Party.
Robert Maclennan was 29 when he took the Caithness and Sutherland seat for Labour by a narrow margin at the 1966 general election. Over the next 35 years he would become the longest-serving MP ever to represent the northern counties.
On stepping down in 2001 as Lib Dem MP for what was by now the enlarged constituency of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, he was elevated to the House of Lords.
At that time he revealed in an exclusive interview with the John O’Groat Journal that had he not won the Caithness and Sutherland seat in 1966 he would have given up on the idea of a career in frontline politics.
“I wouldn’t have gone into politics because I wanted to be the MP for Caithness and Sutherland, and if that had been denied to me by the electorate I would have followed a different career,” he said.
“I would have worked in public international law. I would have tried to get into the United Nations or one of its agencies, possibly the World Bank, and my life would have been focused upon international affairs.
“The week before I was adopted as the candidate for Caithness and Sutherland, I was offered a lectureship in public international law at Manchester University, which I declined in order to become the candidate. But I would have picked up where I had left off if I had not been elected.
“It would have been a political career of a different kind – one focused on trying to extend the efficacy of the rule of law in international affairs, probably focusing upon development in the developing world. These were the sorts of areas I was interested in."
In the event, the young barrister defeated the sitting Liberal member, George Mackie, by 64 votes following a recount at the election in March 1966. He went on to represent Caithness and Sutherland until boundary changes established the new constituency of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross which he successfully contested in 1997.
In 1987, standing for the SDP Liberal Alliance, his majority was a thumping 8494, up from 6843 in 1983 when he was an SDP candidate.
The acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, said: "It is with great sadness that we learn our friend and colleague Bob Maclennan has died.
"Bob was the kind of politician we all strive to be – considerate, honest and hard-working with an uncanny ability to reach out across the political spectrum to find common ground.
"He was also a great servant, over many decades, to his Highland constituents. A passionate advocate of devolution, he campaigned tirelessly for the creation of the Scottish Parliament and wider constitutional reform.
"As Liberal Democrats, we also pay him a huge debt of gratitude. It was his determined leadership and bravery that proved critical in the formation of the movement we know today.
“I personally owe a huge debt to Bob. He advised me through my own career and was a real source of strength and encouragement. His love of the arts and his commitment to a fairer society shone through so many of our conversations.
"Bob made our politics and our country better. He will be sadly missed and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends."
The present Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, Jamie Stone, said he was desperately sad to hear the news.
Mr Stone said: "Bob Maclennan was kind, he was thoughtful, he was hard-working – a true gentleman. Be they lord or labourer, he treated everyone just the same, and he would go to the ends of the earth and back to help a constituent. He was dearly loved in the far north for that.
"I owe him nearly everything in terms of my political career.
"My heart goes out to his family. He was a truly great man, an example to us all – he is the shining light to which all public representatives should be held up and compared."
The leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, Dick Newby, said: “Bob Maclennan was passionate about Europe, constitutional reform and social justice. He saw them all as interconnected and pursued them with energy and determination throughout his political career.
"I worked with him for almost 40 years and will miss him greatly.”
Robert Maclennan was born in Glasgow on June 26, 1936, the eldest son of practising doctors.
After attending Glasgow Academy, he read law at Balliol College, Oxford. After further study at Trinity College, Cambridge, and Columbia University, New York, he was called to the Bar in 1962 and went on to practise international law in New York and London.
In 1967 Robert Maclennan was appointed parliamentary private secretary to George Thomson, the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs, and was an opposition spokesman on Scottish affairs and defence during the 1970-74 parliament.
When Labour returned to power in 1974, he was appointed a minister at the Department of Prices and Consumer Protection with responsibility for competition policy. Among other legislation, he helped to pilot the Consumer Credit Act 1975 through parliament.
He left the Labour Party in 1981 to became a founder member of the SDP, holding his seat at the election in 1983 and doubling his majority. He was elected leader of the SDP in August 1987, and led the negotiations with the Liberals which culminated in the formation of the Liberal Democrats in March 1988.
Co-author of the constitution of the Liberal Democrats, he served as Treasury, home affairs, constitutional affairs and culture spokesman for the party in the Commons.
In 1994 he was elected president of the Liberal Democrats by a ballot of the party's 100,000 members and he entered a second term as president unopposed in 1996, serving until 1998. He served as a member of the Commons Public Accounts Committee from 1980 until 1999.
As early as 1968 he was a strong advocate of devolution to Scotland and went gone on to become an acknowledged expert in constitutional affairs.
Together with Labour's Robin Cook, Robert Maclennan was co-chairman of the Joint Consultative Committee on Constitutional Reform.
He stood down from the House of Commons in 2001 and became a member of the House of Lords. He was a member of its European Union Select Committee, and was the party's representative on the Convention on the Future of Europe.
He was married to Helen, with three children. His interests included the theatre, music and the visual arts.
In the 2001 interview he reflected on how, as a young Labour MP, he was committed to the idea of European integration.
“It was only because I was a very strong advocate of European union that the Labour Party rather kept me out of foreign affairs in those early years, because they did a U-turn after the 1970 election and became anti-European – and I was not about to do a U-turn on that," he said.
He spoke too about his desire for electoral reform. “Really the time has come for politicians of all parties to recognise the shortcomings of first-past-the-post," he said. "No government should have long-lasting three-figure majorities. They become arrogant and inattentive to public concerns.”
He also gave a frank assessment of the six prime ministers he had encountered in his 35 years as MP.
“You don’t reach that pinnacle in public life without having some very good qualities, and all six of them had good qualities as well as unlikeable characteristics,” he said.
“Harold Wilson was a kindly man and he believed in listening to the voices of the different wings within the Labour Party. He had a more democratic instinct in some ways than Tony Blair.
“Edward Heath had a vision about Europe which was perhaps ahead of its time but which I think was right, and that left its mark.
“Jim Callaghan had a steady, good-natured personality which was reassuring when Britain was tempest-tossed by hyperinflation and the oil-price hike.
“Margaret Thatcher was tough-mindedly determined to curb the abuse of power by trade union barons but she herself handled power with less than a full sense that it was held in trust.
“John Major was patently decent but unable to hold his warring party together.
“Tony Blair was properly impatient with the dead hand of the past, but too unsympathetic to the needs of the have-nots in our society and overcautious by temperament.”
* Click here to read more news.
