Charles Kennedy

Died: June 1, 2015.

Charles Kennedy, who has died aged 55, was, as he once said himself, a "fully paid-up member of the human race", and his career proved that such a quality was not incompatible with success as a politician, serving as leader of the Liberal Democrats between 1999-2006.

It was said at the time, particularly after Kennedy increased his party's representation at two general elections, that he was the most successful third-party leader in several generations, and that was true; but even his admirers always suspected that he might have achieved more had he been more driven and less unreliable.

The chief source of that perceived failing was drink, not whisky as the caricature of a Highland Scot usually had it, but gin and tonic and wine. This, as his friend Alastair Campbell put it in a moving tribute, was "a part of who he was, and the life he had", and it had long been so, Kennedy having swapped one hard-drinking culture (Glasgow University) for another (the House of Commons) at a very young age.

Indeed, Kennedy gained the Conservative-held constituency of Ross, Cromarty & Skye aged just 23, a rare gain for the new Social Democratic Party. Beyond a summer job as a radio journalist (a career he might have pursued), he knew little of adult life. Besieged by requests for interviews, he even asked one local television reporter if MPs actually got paid.

Charles Peter Kennedy was born on 25 November 1959 near Lochaber, his father Ian a draughtsman for the North of Scotland Hydro Board and his mother Mary the daughter of a Clydeside dockworker. The Kennedy family had long been crofters in the area, and later Charles would renovate his grandfather's old croft to use as his constituency home.

Educated at St Columbus Roman Catholic Junior School (he also served as an altar boy in Fort William) and later Lochaber High School, Kennedy excelled in school plays and primarily in debating. The latter skill boosted his confidence, took him all over the country and provided a gateway to his political career.

By the time he arrived at Glasgow University to read English, Kennedy, an admirer of Tony Crosland, had already joined his local Labour Party. He switched to politics and philosophy in his third year but devoted most of his energy to the renowned Glasgow University Union, of which he eventually became president (having supported the admission of women). In 1982, he won the prestigious Observer Mace debating competition alongside his friend Clark McGinn.

Modelled on the House of Commons, Kennedy revelled in the Union, while his political appetite was further whetted by a trip to the real thing at Westminster and involvement in the 1982 Hillhead by-election won by his political hero Roy Jenkins. Kennedy graduated with an upper second and then spent a year in Indiana studying as a Fulbright scholar while coaching debating teams, a period he would later describe as the happiest of his life.

Kennedy had just begun a PhD on the political rhetoric of Roy Jenkins when the 1983 general election lured him back from the US and into Parliament as its then youngest MP for the SDP, finding himself sharing an office with the subject of his aborted doctoral studies. Jenkins took Kennedy under his wing, but following a polished maiden speech (including a plea for PR and Scottish devolution), he quickly found himself courted by the media world.

On behalf of the SDP-Liberal Alliance, Kennedy covered health, social security and Scottish affairs, and at the 1987 general election increased his majority to a spectacular 11,319. Having remained aloof from periodic tension between the "two Davids", Steel (the Liberals' leader) and Owen (the SDP's), he became the only one of his party's five MPs to support a merger between the two parties, a decision that caused much resentment.

At a crucial SDP conference Kennedy enhanced his reputation with a barnstorming speech urging delegates to help form a new third party, and Steel even urged him to stand as its leader. Instead he backed Paddy Ashdown, who nominated Kennedy to serve on the select committee considering televising the House of Commons. Thereafter he served the new Liberal Democrats as, at various points, spokesman for trade and industry, health and Europe.

Ashdown and Kennedy were different in both temperament and background and there was frequently tension. The Lib Dem leader was keen on pursuing 'realignment' with the Labour Party, while Kennedy envisaged the party becoming an independent third force in British politics, if not the main opposition. Between 1990-94 he served as party president, a campaigning role Kennedy enjoyed, although he was not part of the leader's inner circle.

Following the 1997 general election, Kennedy's political career began to drift, and his media work, which included a column in the Scotsman and guest stints on the BBC's Have I Got News For You, soon earned him a slightly pejorative reputation as "Chat Show Charlie". But when, in 1999, Paddy Ashdown resigned as leader, Kennedy fought off four other candidates to succeed him. "From here on", he quipped after his election, "it's downhill all the way."

Surprisingly, Kennedy initially struggled to make an impact in the House of Commons, while private polling revealed him to be popular but rather indistinct ideologically. A breath of fresh air after the rather militaristic leadership of Ashdown, he also lacked his predecessor's discipline. Thus Kennedy had his share of critics but gradually found his feet, aided by the 2001 general election that, although he found it personally gruelling, rewarded the Liberal Democrats with 52 MPs.

Although rumours about his drinking surfaced during the next few years (he came close to making a public declaration in 2003), Kennedy's strategic masterstroke was his response to the aftermath of 9/11, urging caution over, at first, military action in Afghanistan and latterly, more significantly, Iraq. It was both principled and shrewd, enabling the Liberal Democrats to attract Labour voters disillusioned at the actions of Tony Blair.

At the 2005 election, however, electoral anger over Iraq proved more beneficial for the party than Kennedy's 'decapitation strategy', intended to defeat high-profile Conservatives, and the Lib Dems gained another ten MPs. At this point, however, certain colleagues decided enough was enough. Kennedy had missed the 2004 Budget, turned up drunk to party meetings and even slurred his way through the 2005 manifesto launch, although so effective were his staff at covering his back that many MPs were unaware he had a drinking problem.

Kennedy attempted to bounce back with a policy review but the mood had turned against him. Initially, he saw off an attempted coup, but when the ITN reporter Daisy McAndrew (his former press secretary) broke news of his alcoholism, Kennedy submitted himself for re-election and admitted he had sought treatment in an attempt to hold on, but when 23 Lib Dems MPs signed a letter demanding he resign he bowed to the inevitable. Poignantly, his resignation statement was among his best performances.

It had been a messy and undignified exit, though much had been of Kennedy's own making. He harboured little bitterness about his effective removal, even helping Willie Rennie win the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election shortly after his resignation. In 2008, meanwhile, Kennedy was elected Rector of Glasgow University, a position that brought him much happiness away from front-line politics.

In 2010 Kennedy was one of the few Liberal Democrat MPs to vote against coalition with the Conservatives, although this was not enough to retain his Ross, Skye and Lochaber seat at the recent general election. During the Scottish independence referendum he had played a low-key role (Kennedy was the only Unionist the Yes side genuinely feared) and recently indicated he would be "actively engaged" in the forthcoming EU campaign.

Actually a rather shy person despite his ebullient political persona, there was nevertheless great consistency between the public and private Kennedy: his distinctive voice and red hair, lips always on the cusp of a smile or a throaty laugh. Often tributes to departed politicians can sound contrived, but in his case the fulsome praise has had the benefit of being true.

Charles Kennedy died at his home in Fort William on Monday, and is survived by Sarah Gurling, his wife between 2002-10, and their son Donald.

DAVID TORRANCE