Alex Falconer

Alex Falconer, who has died aged 72 of cancer, was for 15 years the Labour MEP for Mid-Scotland and Fife, a platform he used to rail against the European project just as his party was trying hard to establish itself as pro-European. On the traditional left of the party, he was similarly out of kilter with Tony Blair's ideological shift to the right.

Alexander Falconer was born in Dundee, the son of John Falconer, a labourer, and Margaret McFarlane, a canteen assistant. He left school with no qualifications but found work as a lodge boy at the Blackness Foundry in his native city. After being made redundant he joined the Royal Navy, in which he served from 1959-68.

After a short spell as a labourer with the Ministry of Public Building and Works, and a year in the NHS (as a stoker at a hospital in Dunfermline), he joined the Rosyth Dockyard as an insulator in 1969, remaining there until his election as an MEP in 1984. He became a shop steward in 1970, serving on negotiating committees in the Civil Service and as chairman of the Fife Federation of Trades Councils.

He joined the Labour Party in 1973 and was a delegate to the Scottish Labour Party conference – on behalf of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) – from 1975 until 1984. That year, he took the Mid-Scotland and Fife European constituency from the Conservatives' John Purvis.

As an MEP, Mr Falconer was a talented campaigner on environmental issues, while he was also prominent in leading the fight against Tory initiatives such as the Poll Tax and water privatisation. Given his constituency he was particularly committed to the miners during the 1984-85 strike, raising funds at home and even during sessions of the European Parliament. When Margaret Thatcher addressed MEPs, Mr Falconer held up a banner supporting the miners.

Perhaps his most successful campaign was to secure compensation for sufferers from pleural plaques, an industrial disease caused by exposure to asbestos. So high-profile was his campaign, that in 2009 the Scottish Parliament passed Damages (Asbestos-related Conditions) (Scotland) Act 2009. There is no equivalent legislation in the rest of the UK).

Throughout his career, he maintained a particular interest in economics and industrial democracy, penning several pamphlets including The Democratic Deficit (1991), Usage and Abusage of the Wealth of Nations (1992), Global Village Economics (1995), Beyond the Wealth of Nations (1997), and The Ill Divided World (1999).

At the European Parliament he served on committees responsible for economic, monetary and industrial policy, environmental and public health and safety, legal affairs and citizens rights, regional policy and external trade and relations. Close to Alex Smith, the Labour MEP for the South of Scotland, "big Alex and wee Alex" were fellow members of the Campaign for Socialism Group established after the abolition of Clause IV.

When Tony Blair visited Brussels as Labour leader in 1995, Mr Falconer was behind an advert in The Guardian (signed by 32 Labour MEPs) calling for the retention of the clause. Mr Blair retorted that they were suffering from "infantile disorder" but listened to Mr Falconer's concerns. Despite being an MEP, he was sceptical about the EU's pro-market policies – another former MEP, Hugh Kerr, remembers him waving to people passing the Parliament restaurant in Brussels and saying: "It's all your money that is paying for this you know!"

In Strasbourg and Brussels, Mr Falconer, together with Stan Newens, Alf Lomas and Llew Smith, established a grouping that saw itself as broadly anti-EU while committed to improving the Parliament's democratic accountability.

Although cynical about New Labour, Mr Falconer retained a soft spot for Gordon Brown, having helped him secure the Kirkcaldy constituency as convenor of the shop stewards at Rosyth. Mr Brown said he was "one of the most dedicated and committed trade unionists and campaigning politicians that I have ever had the privilege to know and work with". Mr Brown and Mr Falconer shared a Parliamentary office in Inverkeithing.

Mr Falconer had long championed the creation of a Scottish Parliament (although not its PR voting system, believing – rightly – it would deprive his party of a majority) but chose not to stand as a Labour MSP having indicated his intention to retire as an MEP in June 1999.

In retirement, he remaining involved in local politics through Kingseat Community Council, also serving as secretary of the Dunfermline and Coast Association of Community Councils. Alex Falconer died at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy. His wife Margaret and their son and daughter survive him.