TRIBUTES from across the political spectrum have been paid to former Labour chancellor Denis Healey who has died aged 98.
The former MP and Labour peer served in Number 11 during the 1974-79 government and became the party's deputy leader in 1980.
He died peacefully at his home in Sussex yesterday morning after a short illness.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was "very sorry to hear that Denis Healey has died. He was, undoubtedly, a giant of the post war Labour movement. Condolences to his family."
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn paid tribute to a "Labour giant".
He said Healey's "record of service to party and country stands as his testament. All our thoughts are with his family."
Shadow UK chancellor John McDonnell said he was "absolutely loyal to the Labour Party" and a "towering intellect".
A defining moment of his career as chancellor came when he applied for an emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund in an effort to save the pound from collapse.
Prime Minister David Cameron wrote on Facebook: "We've lost a huge figure of post-war politics. A hero in World War Two as Beach Master at Anzio and a brave politician, Denis Healey told his party hard truths about Britain having to live within her means."
Healey stood down at the 1992 election after nearly 40 years as an MP for Leeds and went to the House of Lords.
Labour's leader in the House of Lords, Baroness Smith of Basildon, said: "Denis was a great man of British politics and a real character with a tremendous sense of fun.
"He maintained his passion and commitment and all of us in the Labour peers group will miss him so much."
Former Labour cabinet minister Peter Hain said Healey was "an enormous character".
Healey, a Oxford university graduate, served in the Army, during World War Two. His wife, Edna, died in 2010.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here