Obituary: George Cunningham, politician

Born June 10, 1931;

Died July 27, 2018

George Cunningham, who has died aged 87, was a civil servant and politician who earned himself an infamous footnote in Scottish political history on Burns Night 1978.

The Scotland Bill was then working its way through Parliament, and Cunningham, a Scots-born MP with a London constituency, was a sceptic. The legislation – to establish a devolved Scottish Assembly in Edinburgh – had already been amended to require a referendum, and what became known as the “Cunningham Amendment” introduced another hurdle, the “40 per cent rule”.

This stipulated that 40 per cent of the total Scottish electorate had to endorse the plans rather than of those voting. If the 40 per cent threshold wasn’t met, then the Secretary of State for Scotland would be compelled to lay a repeal order before Parliament. As Cunningham later wrote, the amendment did not “decide whether devolution takes place or not, but only whether the matter goes back before Parliament in the event of an inconclusive referendum result”.

With support from dissident Labour MPs and several Conservatives, Cunningham’s amendment was carried on 25 January 1978 by 166 votes to 151, his speech in favour having persuaded many colleagues at the last minute. The government attempted to remove the amendment at the Bill’s Report Stage, but the Tories turned out in force to support it.

The rest of the story is well known. On 1 March 1979 a majority of Scots voted “Yes” to devolution, but not enough given a turnout of only 62.9 per cent. The resulting no-confidence motions from the SNP and Conservatives brought down an already weakened Labour government, and following Mrs Thatcher’s victory the following May, a repeal order was laid and the Scotland Act 1978 removed from the statute book.

Vernon Bogdanor, the constitutional historian, believed the Cunningham amendment had a claim to be “the most important back-bench initiative in British politics since the war”.

George Cunningham was born in Dunfermline on 10 June 1931, the son of Harry Jackson (a hotelier) and Christina Cunningham. He was educated at Dunfermline High School, Blackpool Grammar and the universities of Manchester and London. Following two years’ National Service, he joined the Commonwealth Relations Office, later moving to the British High Commission in Ottawa.

In 1963, Cunningham left the Foreign Service to work as the Labour Party’s Commonwealth Officer. He was then on the staff of the Ministry of Overseas Development and Overseas Development Institute, during which he was involved in attempts to prevent a Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Southern Rhodesia (Cunningham penned a Fabian Society pamphlet called “Rhodesia: the last Chance”).

Having unsuccessfully contested Henley at the 1966 general election, Cunningham was comfortably elected for Islington South-West four years later. Re-elected in 1974 for Islington South and Finsbury, he became PPS to the Education Secretary Reg Prentice but resigned within months after leading a backbench rebellion.

Following the 1979 general election, Cunningham served as Labour’s Home Affairs spokesman. There was a certain irony in him leaving Labour to join the pro-devolution SDP in 1982, becoming the new party’s education and science spokesman. At the 1983 general election, he lost his seat by just 363 votes, and again in 1987 by a margin of 805.

From 1984 to 1992 Cunningham was chief executive of the Library Association, campaigning against cuts in the service. In 1997, he re-voiced his skepticism about devolution before another referendum, warning that the existence of a Scottish Parliament would lead to independence.

George Cunningham died on 27 July having suffered from Alzheimer’s for some time. His wife, Mavis Walton, predeceased him, and he is survived by their son and daughter, Andrew and Helen.

LINDSAY BRYDON

ENDS