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Gerald O'Brien

Astute agent for Scottish Labour

Monday 23 December 2002 01:00 GMT
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Gerald O'Brien, political organiser: born Prestonpans, East Lothian 10 April 1939; Political Agent, Berwick and East Lothian Labour Party 1972-83; Regional Officer, Scottish Labour Party 1983-85, Assistant General Secretary 1985-99; married 1960 Helen Sweeney (died 1966; one son), 1999 Elaine Knox; died Dunbar, East Lothian 19 December 2002.

Many people south of the border wonder why Scottish MPs have won themselves such a prominent place in the present government. One reason is Gerald O'Brien.

O'Brien was the anchorman of the Scottish Labour Party headquarters in Glasgow in the times of adversity in the 1980s. Even when Labour lost the general election of 1992, a half-century of Scottish Labour MPs retained their seats and they were well placed when Labour formed a government in 1997. Numerous cabinet ministers, ministers of state and parliamentary secretaries owed O'Brien a great deal at the early stages of their careers.

Further, at the 1997 general election, O'Brien personally took charge of the campaign in Edinburgh Pentlands that culminated in the defeat of Malcolm Rifkind. Had Rifkind retained his seat the leadership of the Conservative Party might well have been his.

Many English and Welsh Constituency Labour Parties will remember by-election campaigns when the tall, ever-cheerful, unflappable, red-crumple-haired Scot took charge of a committee room. Gerry O'Brien had the knack of endearing himself with his wry humour and obvious sincerity to local Labour parties throughout the country.

He came from a mining family of five brothers and a sister, and was born in Prestonpans, outside Edinburgh, in 1939. On leaving school he became a civil servant in the Fisheries Department of the Scottish Office and then for 15 years was an electrician, often working in the pits. During the Miners' Strike he was one of the main organisers in support of the miners, with all the emotion that was engendered in those who came from mining stock.

Appointed election agent in Berwick and East Lothian in 1972, at the choice of that formidable intellectual MP Professor John P. Mackintosh, O'Brien managed to win a seat that had been held by the Chairman of the 1922 Committee, Sir William Anstruther-Gray, and had never looked like falling to the Labour Party. By his earthy pragmatism he rendered huge service and total loyalty to John Mackintosh. (If Mackintosh had lived I believe that he would have persuaded Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers not to leave the Labour Party.)

It was more than possible that because of his high-profile espousal of entry into the European Community that Mackintosh would have been deselected. O'Brien, who was a passionate believer himself in the EC, was able to watch his back.

When John Mackintosh died in 1978, aged 48, at the beginning of the winter of discontent, it looked as if Labour would lose Berwick and East Lothian. However the triumphant candidate John Home Robertson, MP for the constiuuency until 2001, remembers:

Gerry O'Brien worked a miracle. I was a 29-year-old young farmer and a relatively unknown candidate. Gerry was superb in mobilising what support there was in the rural areas and getting a maximum turn out in the mining areas of the constituency. He turned a forlorn hope into victory.

Labour won by 20,530 to a Conservative 17,418, a Scottish National 3,799 and Liberal 1,543.

O'Brien led many picturesque campaigns, not least along with Arthur Greenham, Noel Foy and his brother the leader of East Lothian Council Pat O'Brien, to gain decent accommodation for the Irish potato workers who were appallingly treated by some East Lothian farmers. However his greatest work was inside the Scottish Office, where he worked closely with Helen Liddell, now Secretary of State for Scotland but then Scottish Secretary of the Labour Party. Liddell recalls:

Gerry O'Brien played the simple country bumpkin – actually he was one of the most astute political minds when it came to taking on Trotskyists and other disruptive elements in the party.

Such was O'Brien's tact that he was even made Women's Officer of the Labour Party in Scotland. The present General Secretary, Lesley Quinn, describes O'Brien as "a member of the Labour Party family, helping people and never allowing differences on policy to affect personal relationships". I know at first hand how true this was, since "the Big Villager", as he was affectionately called, was a passionate advocate of Scottish devolution who was personally friendly to me and Brian Wilson when we led the "Vote No" campaign in 1978 and 1979.

He was that rare political organiser, a man who was respected for his good temper and integrity by those of all hues of political view.

Tam Dalyell

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