Former Labour MP Jimmy Hood dies aged 69

Former Labour MP Jimmy Hood - Image credit: Scottish Labour

Former Lanarkshire MP Jimmy Hood has died at the age of 69.

The Scottish Labour “stalwart” served at Westminster for 28 years, before losing his seat to the SNP’s Angela Crawley in 2015.

Hood was the Labour MP for Clydesdale from 1987 to 2005, when the seat was abolished due to boundary changes.

He then became the MP for Lanark and Hamilton East from 2005 to 2015.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown said Hood would be remembered as a “stalwart of Scottish Labour” and a “recognised expert on matters European, a proud defender of Lanarkshire, and a dedicated advocate of social justice.”

Before being elected to parliament, the former mining engineer was a trade union official for the National Union of Mineworkers.

As an MP he opposed the first gulf war and was among the Labour rebels to vote against the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Scottish Labour Party leader Richard Leonard said he was “deeply saddened” to hear the news of his “friend and comrade” Jimmy Hood’s passing.

He said: “Before his election to Parliament, Jimmy was a National Union of Mineworkers official, leading the striking miners in the Nottinghamshire coalfield.

“He courageously stood up for jobs, communities and his class against the brutal policies of the Thatcher government.

“Jimmy took all that experience into frontline politics, serving the community in Lanark and Hamilton East, and in Clydesdale, for almost three decades.

“His hard work and dedication to those communities will never be forgotten.

“The Scottish Labour movement is in mourning today and on behalf of all of us, I pass on our sympathies to his wife Marion."