‘Flying Scotsman’ who led Lib Dems from the front

Olympic sprinter, barrister and long-serving MP, Ming Campbell became a respected elder statesman, known for his quiet authority and principled stance on foreign affairs

- SEAN O'GRADY

Menzies Campbell was a finely tailored politician who dressed like a Tory grandee, had a certain affinity with the social democratic wing of the Labour Party, but always described himself as both a proud Liberal and a proud Scot.

And so he was. Despite knowing and being surrounded by equally talented Scottish Labour figures who’d made easier careers for themselves in what was the naturally dominant political force north of the border - notably John Smith, who rose to the party leadership - Campbell paid a certain price for his loyalty to liberal values. He had become an MP at the comparatively mature age of 46, rose to the party leadership when he was, at 65, past his prime, and never held office.

By the time the Liberal Democrats tasted national power in the Cameron-Clegg coalition government of 2010, Campbell might have had the opportunity to serve in some role but he sat it out. He could not be blamed for the Lib Dems’ nuclear winter that followed the 2015 general election. At that point, it was curtains for the lot of them.

As is routine for a former party leader, Campbell took a peerage and stepped back from public life. But he had been in the thick of politics for decades. He was extremely close to Paddy Ashdown during his leadership in the 1990s, and, had an attempt to pull Labour and the Liberal Democrats closer together in what was then termed “The Project” succeeded, he would easily have joined the Blair cabinet. It was not to be.