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The Right Honourable Henry McLeish (born 15 June 1948, Methil, Fife, Scotland) is a Scottish politician, author, and academic. He served as the second First Minister of Scotland from 2000 to 8 November 2001, following Donald Dewar. McLeish was the Member of Parliament for Central Fife from 1987 to 2001 and MSP for Central Fife from 1999 to 2003.
Footballer and early political career
He was a professional footballer playing for East Fife F.C., which he signed for after a spell at Leeds United F.C. and also represented Scotland as a youth international. After this he was a lecturer at Heriot-Watt University before entering politics. McLeish was leader of Fife Regional Council, before his election as a Labour MP for Central Fife at the 1987 General Election. In the late 1980s and into the 1990s, McLeish was a Labour shadow spokesman for several portfolios, including the Scottish Office, transport, employment, and health and social security. When Labour came to power in 1997, McLeish was appointed as a Minister of the Scottish Office.
As Donald Dewar's right hand 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 1999, McLeish was elected as MSP for Fife Central and became Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning.
First Minister
After Dewar's death in 2000, McLeish defeated his rival Jack McConnell in the race to become the second First Minister.
While First Minister, he was widely commended as being a business-like manager of the Scots executive, with good political instincts and good relations in Westminster and Holyrood. He travelled widely, particularly in the United States, where he quite shamelessly capitalised on sentimentalism for Scotland among American politicians to advance the cause of Scottish industry and export. He managed several tasks forces designed to improve the competitiveness of Scots industry, especially the PILOT project for Scottish oil and gas supply chains. Even so, he was embarrassed when an open microphone recorded him with Helen Liddell in a TV studio, describing 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." [1]
He resigned as First Minister in 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. Even 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 Parliamentary elections. McLeish did not seek re-election.
After politics
Since leaving mainstream politics McLeish has lectured widely in the United States, particularly at the United States Air Force Academy and the University of Arkansas, where he holds a visiting professorship shared between the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and the University of Arkansas School of Law. He is considered an expert on European/American relations and on the European Union. He is a consultant with political and public relations consultancy Halogen Communications Ltd, as well as J. Chandler & Co., distributor of Buckfast Tonic Wine and has written a number of books including Scotland First: Truth and Consequences (2004), Global Scots: Voices from Afar (with Kenny MacAskill) (2006) (published in the UK as Global Scots: Making It in the Modern World), Wherever the Saltire Flies (with Kenny MacAskill) (2006) and Scotland: The Road Divides (with Tom Brown) (2007).
McLeish is also:
- Member of Her Majesty's Privy Council
- Hartman Hotz Visiting Professor in Law and the Liberal Arts, jointly in the Fulbright College and Law School, University of Arkansas
- Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver
- Visiting lecturer at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado
- Honorary Fellow at the College of Humanities and Social Science at Edinburgh University
- Honorary Fellow at the Cambridge Land Institute, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University
- Adviser, Consultant and Facilitator to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions and the European Monitoring Centre for Change, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
- Adviser and Consultant to the LEED Programme of the OECD in Paris, France, including visits to Austria, Italy, and Mexico
- Consultant, in partnership with Jeremy Harrison, Cambridge (Public Value Partnership, working on new project development and evaluation of existing projects in the community and voluntary sector
In August 2007 he was appointed to the Scottish Broadcasting Commission (established by the Scottish Government).
References
- ^ [1] Labours chiefs in 'comments row', BBC News
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