Robert Hughes, Baron Hughes of Woodside (3 January 1932 – 7 January 2022) was a British Labour Party politician and

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

who served as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for 27 years, and was also Chair of the British

Anti-Apartheid Movement The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), was a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system and supporting South Africa's non-White population who were persecuted by the policie ...

(AAM) from 1976 until it was dissolved in 1995 after the ending of

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

in South Africa.

Political career

Hughes first stood for Parliament in

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

North Angus and Mearns Angus North and Mearns was a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1950 to 1983. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post voting system. It was unsucces ...

, where he came second to the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

incumbent

Colin Thornton-Kemsley Sir Colin Norman Thornton-Kemsley, (2 September 1903 – 17 July 1977) was a Conservative and National Liberal politician in the United Kingdom. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kincardine and Western Aberdeenshire from 1939 to 1950, ...

. He was the

(MP) for Aberdeen North from 1970 to 1997. Hughes was

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland is a junior ministerial post (of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State rank) in the Government of the United Kingdom, supporting the Secretary of State for Scotland. The post is also kno ...

from March 1974 until July 1975, when he resigned in disagreement with the government's incomes policy. The 1979 vote of no confidence resulted from the Labour government overturning the "Yes" result of the Scottish devolution referendum. Rather than the SNP, prime minister

James Callaghan Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, ( ; 27 March 191226 March 2005), commonly known as Jim Callaghan, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980. Callaghan is ...

blamed unionist rebels on his own benches for ultimately bringing about the collapse of his government and opening the door to victory for

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

's Conservatives. Hughes was one of those rebels.

Tam Dalyell Sir Thomas Dalyell, 11th Baronet, , ( ; 9 August 1932 – 26 January 2017), known as Tam Dalyell, was a Scottish Labour Party politician who was a member of the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005. He represented West Lothian from 1962 to 198 ...

Peter Doig Peter Doig ( ; born 17 April 1959) is a Scottish painter. One of the most renowned living figurative painters, he has settled in Trinidad since 2002. In 2007, his painting ''White Canoe'' sold at Sotheby's for $11.3 million, then an auction r ...

, and Adam Hunter were the other Scottish Labour MPs who helped overturn the "Yes" vote. In November 1985 Hughes was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as

Shadow Secretary of State for Transport The Shadow Secretary of State for Transport is a political post in the United Kingdom. It has been consistently held by a member of the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet since May 1979. The Shadow Secretary helps hold the Transport Secretary ...

. On 27 September 1997, he was created a

as Baron Hughes of Woodside, of Woodside in the City of Aberdeen.

Anti-Apartheid Movement

Under his chairmanship the

campaigned against the Thatcher government's refusal to impose sanctions against South Africa in the 1980s and organised the 1988 "Free Mandela" concert at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

which was televised by the BBC and broadcast around the world. Hughes attended the independence celebrations in

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

in 1990 and acted as an observer at South Africa's first democratic elections in April 1994. After the dissolution of the AAM he became the first Chairperson of its successor organisation, ACTSA: Action for Southern Africa.

Personal life and death

Hughes was born on 3 January 1932, and educated at

Robert Gordon's College Robert Gordon's College is a co-educational Independent school (UK) for day pupils in Aberdeen, Scotland. The school caters for pupils from Nursery through to S6. History Robert Gordon, an Aberdeen merchant, made his fortune in 18th century ...

, Aberdeen, and in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

, where he lived from 1947 until 1954 and worked as a draughtsman. He was a patron of

Humanists UK Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious b ...

. He died on 7 January 2022, four days after his 90th birthday, after a long illness.

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of t ...

Anas Sarwar Anas Sarwar (born 14 March 1983) is a Scottish politician who has served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party since 2021. He has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow region since 2016, having been Member of Parliame ...

and

Peter Hain Peter Gerald Hain, Baron Hain (born 16 February 1950), is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2005 to 2007, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2007 to 2008 and twice as Secretary of State ...

paid tribute to him, with Blair saying, "He was a lovely, kind and exceptional man and embodied all that is best in public service."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Robert, Baron Hughes of Woodside 1932 births 2022 deaths Amalgamated Engineering Union-sponsored MPs People educated at Robert Gordon's College Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Aberdeen constituencies Scottish Labour MPs Hughes of Woodside Life peers created by Elizabeth II UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 British humanists Anti-apartheid activists