News from Labour Matters

New Scottish by-election test after John MacDougall dies

Labour faces the prospect of another by-election in Scotland after news that the respected Scottish Labour MP John MacDougall has died after a battle with cancer. The member for Glenrothes was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an asbestos-related lung cancer, more than two years ago. He was 60. He leaves a wife Cathy and children Scott and Julie.

John MacDougall was born in Dunfermline, Fife, and worked as a boilermaker and a union shop steward, before being elected to Fife regional council. He was a Fife Councillor for nearly 20 years, 14 of them full-time. Mr MacDougall was a member of the Scottish Constitutional Convention and a member of the Scottish Broadcasting Authority.

Mr MacDougall held the Glenrothes seat, a neighbouring constituency to Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s in Kirkcaldy, by a majority of 10,664 votes at the last election. The present Glenrothes constituency was created in 2005. The electorate is about 60,000, some 14,000 of whom are old age pensioners. Only a tiny number of people (0.8%) come from ethnic minorities.

The main source of employment used to be coal. Today the main industries are engineering, new technologies, textiles and the service industries. The off-shore oil industry also provides some employment, as does tourism, especially in Leven. In addition paper making has played a part in the local economy for many years.

A Labour Party spokesman said: “All our thoughts are with his family at this time.”

Details of the date for the by-election will be released when the House of Commons returns in the autumn.

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