George Cunningham (10 June 1931 – 27 July 2018) was a British politician who is known for introducing an amendment to the

1979 Scottish devolution referendum Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

that resulted in the devolution act being repealed even though a majority voted in favour.

Early life

Born in

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries. The earliest ...

, Cunningham was educated at Dunfermline High School, Blackpool Grammar School and the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

. He worked for the Labour Party as its

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officer.

Political career

Cunningham contested Henley at the 1966 general election as the Labour candidate. He was first elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington South West at the 1970 general election. After boundary changes, he was elected for Islington South and Finsbury at the February 1974 election. Cunningham strongly opposed

Scottish devolution Scottish devolution is the process of the UK Parliament granting powers (excluding powers over reserved matters) to the devolved Scottish Parliament. Prior to the advent of devolution, some had argued for a Scottish Parliament within the United ...

. At his prompting, the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

accepted an amendment to the Scotland Act 1978 that a majority voting "yes" in the 1979 referendum on establishing a devolved Assembly would have to constitute at least 40 per cent of the Scottish electorate, without which the proposal could be withdrawn and the Act repealed by statutory instrument. Although “yes” won a majority of those voting in the referendum, as the "yes" constituted only 32.9 per cent of the electorate, the Labour government decided it would not proceed with devolution. This prompted the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

to withdraw its support for the minority government. The

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

opposition then tabled a motion of no confidence, in which the government was defeated by one vote. The Conservative Party, which was opposed to devolution, won the subsequent general election; the Scotland Act was repealed in June 1979.

Social Democratic Party

In November 1981, Cunningham resigned from the Labour Party and sat as an independent Labour MP, before becoming one of the later ex-Labour defectors to the recently founded

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

in June 1982. Cunningham lost his seat by just 363 votes (1%) at the 1983 general election to Labour candidate Chris Smith. He contested the seat again at the 1987 general election when he lost by a similarly narrow margin (the only defecting former Labour MP who came close to regaining their seat that year) and never re-entered the House of Commons.

Personal life

Cunningham married Mavis Walton in 1957 and they had two children, Andrew and Helen. Mavis, who unsuccessfully contested

Twickenham Twickenham ( ) is a suburban district of London, England, on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historic counties of England, Historically in Middlesex, since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, who ...

for Labour in the October 1974 election, pre-deceased her husband. Cunningham died in 2018.

References

External links