Candidates and Constituency Assessments

'I can hardly recognise the Labour Party now because of the policy changes we have had.' John Home Robertson, Labour MP for East Lothian, in the Sunday Express 12 th May 1996.

East Lothian

	Hilary Brown		Anne Picking
	Hamish Mair		Judy Hayman
	Derrick White		Jake Herriot

The East Lothian seat was created in 1983. 73% of its voters came from the Labour, East Lothian part of Berwick & East Lothian, to which was added 21 % from Musselburgh in Labour Edinburgh East, and a further 6 % from Labour Midlothian. In the boundary change for the 1997 Westminster election, Musselburgh was returned to Edinburgh East.

The 'Berwick' in this constituency's title referred neither to Berwick-Upon-Tweed, once a Scottish town but lost definitively to England in 1482, nor to the town of North Berwick in East Lothian, but to the once Tory stronghold of Berwickshire in the Scottish Borders.

In removing Berwickshire from East Lothian, the boundary commissioners created a very boring and safe seat for Labour. In the past, Berwickshire & East Lothian was highly volatile and sometimes went the opposite way to the rest of the country. The marginality of the seat was demonstrated by the turnout which in the ten general elections between 1950 and 1979 ranged between 80.3 % and 86.1 % compared to between 54.5 % and 76.3 % for Ross & Cromarty in the same period.

Way back in the 1920s, when it was known as Berwickshire & Haddingtonshire, the seat twice entered the record books. In the 1922 general election it was a three way marginal with Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberals all within 9.65 % of each other, while at the 1923 general election, it was won by Labour's R. Spence with a waver thin majority of 68.

Labour won Berwick & East Lothian from the Tories in 1945 and in 1950 Labour's J.J. Robertson held the seat with 40.9 % of the vote and a majority of 1,728 over the Conservatives. The Tory candidate was William Anstruther-Gray who had been Assistant Postmaster General and MP for Lanarkshire North until he was defeated by Labour in 1945. The Tories polled 36.8 % with Liberal J. Stodart taking 22.4 %.

In 1951, the Liberals did not stand and their 22.4 % of the vote was up for grabs. William Anstruther-Gray won back Berwick & East Lothian for the Conservatives with a 2,358 majority over J.J. Robertson. The Tory vote increased by 11.9 % to 52.8 % with the Labour vote increasing by 10.5 % to 47.2 %.

In 1955 there was a small swing of 0.6 % to the Tories and Mr Anstruther-Gray increased his majority to 2,710 over P. Jones, taking 53.3 % compared to 46.7 % for Labour.

In 1959, the biggest change in Berwick & East Lothian was the turnout which increased from 80.3 % to 83.2 %; The swing from Labour to Tory was just 0.07 % with Sir William Anstruther-Gray, baronet, being elected with a majority of 2,850 over Labour's P. Jones.

In 1964, there was a swing of 2.6 % to Labour and the Tory Baronet's majority was reduced to just 625 with the Conservatives taking 50.7 % and Labour polling 49.3 %. The Labour candidate was Professor John P. Mackintosh, who would almost certainly have become MP for Paisley in 1961 had he not been forced to withdraw from the by-election short list due to an academic contract in Nigeria.

In 1966, there was a further swing of 2.7 % to Labour and the Professor beat the Baronet to become the first Labour MP for Berwick & East Lothian since J.J. Robertson was defeated in 1951. John P. Macintosh took 51.9 % of the vote, giving him a 1,689 majority over Sir W.J. Anstruther-Gray with 48.1 %. Professor Mackintosh was one of the most gifted orators of his generation and was one of the few Scottish Labour MPs who were genuinely in favour of devolution. In his Devolution, the end of Britain? Tam Dalyell commented 'Had he entered the commons in 1960 (actually April 1961) rather than in 1966, he could hardly have been denied a place in the Labour Party hierarchy, from which he could have pursued a constructive devolutionary case. With the departure of Mackintosh for Africa, and a number of other pro-devolution academics to posts elsewhere, the positive case for some kind of devolution in the late 1950s and early 1960s went by default in the Labour Party, as it had never had the sympathy of Will Marshall, the powerful Secretary of the Scottish Labour Party during that period.'

In 1970 the SNP contested Berwick & East Lothian and for the first time since 1950 the election was a three way contest. John P. Macintosh saw his vote fall by 6.4 % to 45.6 % and his majority drop to 641 over Tory J.D.M. Hardie. The Tories polled 44.2 %, down 3.9 %, with the SNP's Dr D.R.F. Simpson polling 10.2 %.

Although the Tories lost the general election of February 1974, they gained two seats from Labour in Scotland - Dunbartonshire East and Berwick & East Lothian. The new Tory MP for Berwickshire & East Lothian was Michael Kerr, Earl of Ancram, the son and heir of the Marquis of Lothian. The Labour vote had fallen by 3.3 % to 42.3 % with the Tory vote falling by 0.8 % to 43.4 % which allowed the Earl to beat the Professor by a margin of 540 votes. In third place was the SNP's Dr D.R.F Simpson who polled 14.2 %, up 4.0 % on 1970.

The Earl of Ancram's tenure was to be brief however as in the election of October 1974, the Conservatives lost their two gains. Dunbartonshire East became a razor edge three way marginal which went to the SNP's Margaret Bain, now Margaret Ewing the SNP MP for Moray. In the second contest of the year between the Professor and the Earl in Berwick & East Lothian, John P. Mackintosh came out the clear winner. The election of October 1974 was complicated by the presence of the Liberals who, contesting the seat for the first time since 1950, polled 5.9 %. The fact that this seat was an intense Labour- Tory marginal was demonstrated by the fact that the SNP polled worse here than in any other constituency in Scotland with R.D. Macleod taking 13.2 % of the vote, 3.3 % less than their next poorest result in Glasgow Cathcart. John P. Mackintosh increased his vote by 1.0 % to 43.3 % while Michael Ancram's vote dropped by 5.9 % to 37.6 %. This gave John P. Macintosh a majority of 2,740 over the Tories, the second largest which the constituency had seen since 1950. Michael Kerr, Earl of Ancram resurfaced as Conservative MP for Edinburgh South between 1979 and 1987 until he was defeated by Labour. Since 1992 he has been MP for Devises in the south of England.

Labour's Professor John P. Mackintosh was one of those highly respected MPs who never made ministerial office because he stuck to his guns and always put his constituents before his party. He was one of the Labour party's most enthusiastic supporters of devolution for Scotland and his premature death in 1978 at the age of 43 robbed Scotland of one of its most eloquent proponents of devolution. Professor Mackintosh was solely missed in the run up to the devolution referendum of 1979. By late 1978, Jim Callaghan's Labour government was in severe trouble. Although they had fought off the SNP challenge in Glasgow Garscadden and Hamilton, Margaret Thatcher's Tories were polling strongly and the by-election was expected to be won by the Conservative Mrs Margaret Marshall.

To general amazement, Labour held Berwick & East Lothian with an increased majority over the Tories. There was a swing of 0.75 % from Conservative to Labour. Due to a reduced turnout, John Home Robertson took 152 less votes than Professor Mackintosh had obtained in October 1974. Margaret Marshall's vote was down by 524 votes on the Earl of Ancram's. This unexpected hold gave John Home Robertson an increased majority of 3,112 over the Conservatives, Labour's biggest majority in the constituency since 1945.

Although the Labour and Tory votes had hardly changed since the general election, the same could not be said for the Liberals and Scottish National Party. The Liberal's Tam Glen scored only 1,543 votes (3.6 %) compared to 2,811 (5.9 %) at the general election while the SNP's Isobel Lindsay took 3,799 (8.8 %), down from 6,323 (13.2 %) at the general election. This was one of the SNP's worst every by election campaigns in its entire history. While Berwick & East Lothian had been the SNP's poorest seat in the watershed election of October 1974, the by-election campaign had been effectively sabotaged by party HQ before it even began. Local SNP activists were first stunned when HQ replaced the popular local candidate Bill Paterson with party vice chairman Mrs Isobel Lindsay, and then furious when it was announced that Mrs Lindsay was pregnant and unlikely to contest the seat at a General Election. The media accused the SNP of both 'cynicism' and 'naivety' and unsurprisingly, the SNP vote dropped by half with Mrs Lindsay losing her deposit. Locals still talk of the poor impression which the SNP candidate made when talking to electors. Mrs Lindsay later resigned from the SNP over their non-participation in the Scottish Constitutional Convention and became a major critic of the party's stance before finding a natural home in the new right wing Labour party. There may even be some in East Lothian who reacted with a wry smile when Isobel Lindsay was, much to her disgust, rejected by Rosemary McKenna's Network cabal as an approved Labour candidate for the Scottish Parliament.

At the 1979 General Election, Mrs Marshall clashed again with Mr Home Robertson but Labour held on with a reduced majority of 1,673. Representing the SNP this time around was a completely different style of candidate, Dr Allan Macartney, who became SNP MEP for North East Scotland in 1994. Dr Macartney's premature death in 1998 robbed the SNP and Scotland of one of the country's most highly respected politicians.

The boundary changes in 1983 removed Tory Berwickshire to a new Roxburgh & Berwickshire seat while adding Musselburgh from Labour Edinburgh East. This made the new East Lothian a much safer, although much less interesting, Labour seat and Mr Robertson enjoyed a majority of 6,241 over Tory journalist Michael Fry in 1983. Labour took 43.9 %, the Tories 30.8 %, the Liberal Michael Kibby polled 20.9 %, with the SNP's Roger Knox taking 4.4 %. Michael Fry contested Glasgow Maryhill in 1999 where he did somewhat worse than in East Lothian, coming 5 th behind the SSP with 5.2 %. Roger Knox contested Kirkcaldy in both 1974 elections and Edinburgh South in 1992. In June 2000 Roger Knox rocked Labour in East Lothian when he won the Musselburgh East ward in East Lothian with a swing of 13.0 % from Labour and joined David Berry in North Berwick East as the SNP's second East Lothian Cllr.

In 1987, there was a swing 3.3 % from the Tories to Labour and John Home Robertson was elected with an increased majority of 10,105. Labour took 48.0 %, up 4.1 %, with Tory Michael Langdon taking 28.3 %, down 2.5 %. Liberal Andrew Robinson took 15.5 %, down 5.4 % with the SNP's Alex Burgon Lyon, the chairman of East Lothian SNP, increasing their vote by 2.9 % to 7.3 %.

In 1992, an increased turnout and a reduction the Labour vote by 1.6 % to 46.5 % saw John Home Robertson's majority fall slightly to 10,036. Tory James Hepburne-Scott took 28.2 %, down 0.1 % on 1987. In third place was the SNP's George Thomson with 14.2 %, up 6.8 % who beat Lib Dem Tim McKay into fourth place with 11.1 %, down 4.3 % on 1987. George Thomson was SNP Cllr for Tranent North and had defected from Labour to the SNP. In May 1992, he held his ward with a majority of 363 over Labour.

For the next general election, the initial propositions of the boundary commission concerning East Lothian were dramatic. Musselburgh was to be transferred back to Edinburgh East, where it had been until 1983, with the solidly Labour areas of Tranent, Ormiston, and Prestonpans to be added to Midlothian. The eastern more rural area around Haddington, North Berwick and Dunbar was to be twinned once more with Berwickshire in what would have produced a notional Conservative seat. However, as Waller and Criddle commented in their Almanac of British Politics, 'There is no doubt that the Labour Party consistently out manoeuvred their main rivals in adopting a thoughtful, knowledgeable and disciplined national approach to the inquiry process, co-ordinated by David Gardner of Walworth Road. The Conservatives on the other hand, left matters very much up to individual associations who often failed to 'get their act together' or to present firm and realistic proposals at the inquiry. The consequences were that in several cases a favourable initial scheme published by the Commission was overturned after the inquiry, and there are cases where it can fairly be said that the new boundaries have been drawn by the opposition parties.

Such was the case in East Lothian, and after a public inquiry, the seat was left untouched, with the exception of the transfer of Musselburgh back to Edinburgh East, which left John Home Robertson with a comfortable notional majority of 7,099, down from 9,964 in 1992.

The loss of Musselburgh might have been expected to reduce Mr Home Robertson's majority somewhat in 1997, but the 1995 local elections indicated that the Conservative vote had plummeted, with even previously Tory areas such as Dunbar being represented by a Labour councillor. Indeed, in 1997, Mr Home Robertson's majority increased to 14,221 with Tory Murdo Fraser seeing their vote fall to an all time low of 19.9 %. Labour took 52.7 % with the SNP's David McCarthy polling 15.7 % and Lib Dem Alison MacAskill taking 10.5 %.

John Home Robertson has been unhappy at the recent changes in the Labour party which have been imposed by the Islington leadership. A supporter of devolution, he was one of only nine out of the 56 Labour MPs who applied to stand for the Scottish Parliament and one of only three backbenchers to make it past Rosemary McKenna's Network cabal, three others, Ian Davidson (Glasgow Pollok), Michael Connarty (Falkirk East) and Dennis Canavan (Falkirk West) having been bombed out by 'Elle Supremo'.

In the Scottish Parliamentary elections a clear incumbency effect was seen in East Lothian. While there were large swings against Labour in seats contested by new (or should that read New) Labour candidates, in East Lothian John Home Robertson's vote only fell by 1.5 % and he was elected with a majority of 10,946, down from 14,221 in 1997. In second place, for the first time ever, were the Scottish National Party whose candidate Callum Miller polled 22.0 %, up by 6.3 % on 1997. Christine Richard saw the Tories fall to third place for the first time in East Lothian with their vote dropping by 4.1 % to 15.8 %. Lib Dem Judy Hayman came fourth with 4,147 votes (11.0 %) and not 2,147 as reported in many newspapers.

Home Robertson is an unlikely Labour MP - an ex-Liberal and landowner of 800 acres in Paxton, Berwickshire. He is thought of by his constituents as a very likeable man, but a somewhat uncharismatic MP. With the departure of George Robertson, the death of Donald Dewar and the resignation of Dennis Canavan, only four other Scottish MPs (Tam Dalyell, Bob Maclennan, Gavin Strang and Robin Cook) have served longer than him. Unlike the other two MPs elected in by-elections in 1978, Donald Dewar and George Robertson, John Home Robertson never rose to ministerial rank at Westminster. While Labour were in opposition, he served as a whip between 1983 and 1984, an agriculture spokesman between 1984 and 1985, and a Scottish spokesman (with responsibility for agriculture and housing) between 1985 and 1988. In 1997, while George Robertson and Donald Dewar became Cabinet Ministers, John Home Robertson was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Jack Cunningham in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

In the Scottish Parliament, Donald Dewar could hardly ignore a Labour colleague with 21 years experience who was elected in a by-election in the same year as himself and Doddie Robertson. Mr Home Robertson was appointed as a Junior Executive minister with responsibility for Fisheries & Land Reform. The result was somewhat embarrassing for all concerned. Margaret Thatcher had proven that she was a past master at selling things which did not belong to her when she sold off the Scottish TSB which actually belonged to its customers. Tony Blair proved that he could be just as malicious and anti-Scottish when he stole 6000 square miles of Scottish fisheries waters and handed over their jurisdiction to the English courts. Despite repeated questioning on the matter in the Scottish Parliament, Home Robertson was unable or unwilling to provide figures which he had been asked for weeks before.

In July 1999, Scottish Secretary Dr John Reid was forced to apologise for misleading the House of Commons after he told the Scottish Affairs Committee that he had not received a letter outlining fishermen's concerns about a new boundary between Scottish and English waters, sent to him by the chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation. However the SFF were able to produce a copy of the letter, dated June 28 1999, along with a memo acknowledging its receipt from the Scottish Office at Whitehall.

Dr Iain Scobie of Glasgow University argued that the transfer of 6000 square miles of East Coast fisheries to English jurisdiction breached international rules, and claimed the only logical reason for Westminster doing this was to put down a marker for a similar transfer of oil and gas rights in the future. There was a 'debate' in the Scottish Parliament on June 3 rd 1999, when John Home Robertson was at times almost the only Labour MSP in the chamber. At five to five the parliament suddenly filled up with Labour and Lib Dem MSPs, and the calls to redraw the boundaries were defeated by 63 votes to 55.

Mr Home-Robertson's brief, no less than the betrayal of the Scottish Fishing Industry by New Labour, was indeed a difficult one, but his lack of stature in the chamber and inability to provide figures which he had been asked for weeks before hardly added to his stature. In October 2000, he was sacked by Henry McLeish and Fisheries removed as an identifiable ministerial responsibility. The shameful betrayal of the Scottish fishing industry by Labour and the Lib Dems was completed in March 2001 when Henry McLeish's junta rejected by 11 votes a demand for short-term aid for a tie-up scheme for the fishing fleet, overturning a democratic parliamentary vote in favour just a week before.

Labour's disgraceful neglect of East Lothian is apparent from the dangerous state of the transport links in the county. Home Robertson fought for many years to have the killer A1 road dualled and the Tory government actually allocated money for this work. However, as soon as Tony Blair and London Labour gained power the road building programme was abandoned which allowed millions of pounds of public money to be thrown at such worthy and needy causes as Scottish Opera and Peter Mandelson's Millenium Dome. East Lothian's roads have been totally neglected with wags claiming that many cars are disappearing in the town of Dunbar not due to car theft, but because they are falling into the many enormous potholes in the town's roads. Despite the obvious signs of neglect throught East Lothian, the council tax rises here have been some of the largest in the whole of the UK. What is the Labour council doing with the money?

After 23 years of representing this constituency at Westminster, the nice, but totally ineffective John Home Robertson is retiring from Westminster. He will no doubt spend his twilight years making the occasional brief appearance on the backbenches on the Scottish Parliament. (On the 25 th of April, Home Robertson, like many other MSPs, appeared in the parliament chamber to vote at five to five, despite having been absent for the whole of the afternoon's debate). Home Robertson will be replaced as Labour candidate by a complete unknown, Anne Picking, who is apparently a Unison official.

The SNP have selected Hilary Brown who is Scottish Parliamentary Assistant to Nicola Sturgeon MSP and a prominent Lothians SNP activist. The Tory candidate is Hamish Mair, while the Lib Dems have selected Judy Hayman who contested the seat in 1999. The SSP candidate is Derrick White who contested Edinburgh East & Musselburgh for the SNP in 1997, taking 19.1 % and for the SSP in 1999, taking 1.9 %. The Socalist Labour candidate is Jake Herriot.

1 st May 1997 Westminster Election

Logo	Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	John Home Robertson	22,881	52.68%
	Conservative	Murdo Fraser	8,660	19.94%
	Scottish National Party	David McCarthy	6,825	15.71%
	Liberal Democrat	Alison MacAskill	4,575	10.53%
	Referendum	Norman Nash	491	1.13%
	Lab win	Lab majority	14,221	32.74%

Links

• East Lothian Constituency (Scottish National Party)

• Hilary Brown (Scottish National Party)

• Haddington Branch (Scottish National Party)

• John Home Robertson (Tweedale Press)

• East Lothian Constituency (Conservative)

• East Lothian Liberal Democrats

• East Lothian Constituency and Judy Hayman (Liberal Democrat)