House Magazine: Backtracks 1994
Labour Party leader John Smith died in London on May 12, 1994, after suffering two heart attacks. He suffered his first at his flat in central London, and the second in the ambulance on the way to St Bartholomew’s Hospital. He was 55 years old.
The day’s sitting of the House of Commons was suspended out of respect. His predecessor as Labour leader, Neil Kinnock, described him as a man of “superb ability”, while Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown said he was “one of the foremost parliamentary talents of our time”.
John Smith trained as a lawyer in Glasgow before turning to politics. Hugh Gaitskell described him as one of the best student speakers he had ever heard, after witnessing his performance at a May Day rally in 1963. He first entered Parliament in 1970 as Labour MP for North Lanarkshire, but transferred to Monklands East after boundary changes in 1983.
He became minister for oil in 1974, working alongside Tony Benn, and entered the cabinet at the age of 39 as trade secretary in 1978. After holding a number of frontbench roles in opposition, he became leader of the Labour Party in 1992, and was widely expected to win the forthcoming general election.
Two months after John Smith’s death, Tony Blair was elected leader of the Labour Party. There is a memorial to John Smith in the building of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.
This article first appeared in House Magazine, on 7 May 2007, reproduced with the kind permission of the editorial team at House Magazine