John Smith

John Smith      (Politician)
Born	1938-09-13 Dalmally, Argyll and Bute, Scotland, UK
Died	12 May 1994 (Age 55) London, England, UK
Cause of death	"Heart attack"
Nationality	UK
Alma mater	University of Glasgow
Religion	Church of Scotland
Children	• 3 • including • Sarah Smith
Spouse	Elizabeth Bennett
Member of	Bilderberg/Steering committee, The Other Club
Victim of	premature death
Party	Labour
UK labour leader who suffered a fatal heart attack  UK/Leader of the Opposition  In office 18 July 1992 - 12 May 1994 Preceded by Neil Kinnock Succeeded by Margaret Beckett  Leader of the Labour Party In office 18 July 1992 - 12 May 1994 Deputy Margaret Beckett Preceded by Neil Kinnock  Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer  In office 13 July 1987 - 24 July 1992 Deputy Margaret Beckett, Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman Succeeded by Gordon Brown  Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry In office 26 October 1984 - 13 July 1987 Preceded by Peter Shore  The Britain-Russia Centre and the British East-West Centre/Director In office 28 November 1983 - 12 May 1994  Shadow Secretary of State for Employment In office 2 October 1983 - 26 October 1984 Succeeded by John Prescott  Shadow Secretary of State for Energy In office 24 November 1982 - 2 October 1983 Preceded by Merlyn Rees  Shadow Secretary of State for Trade  In office 4 May 1979 - 24 November 1982 Succeeded by Peter Archer  Secretary of State for Trade and President of the Board of Trade In office 11 November 1978 - 4 May 1979  Minister of State for the Privy Council Office In office 8 April 1976 - 11 November 1978  Minister of State for Energy In office 4 December 1975 - 8 April 1976  Member of Parliament for Monklands East In office 18 June 1970 - 12 May 1994  Secretary of State for Trade In office 11 November 1978 - 4 May 1979 Preceded by Edmund Dell Succeeded by Keith Joseph, John Nott  President of the Board of Trade  In office 11 November 1978 - 4 May 1979  Member of Parliament for Monklands East In office 18 June 1970 - 12 May 1994

John Smith QC was a UK politician and former Leader of the Labour Party. After Labour leader Neil Kinnock resigned following the Party's surprise loss in the 1992 general election to new Conservative leader John Major, Smith was elected his successor in July 1992. He continued Kinnock's moves to reform Labour, abolishing the trade union block vote at Labour party conferences and replacing it with "one member, one vote" at the 1993 party conference. However, his overall cautious approach to reform, which was dubbed "one more heave", sought to avoid controversy and win the next election by capitalising on the unpopularity of the Conservative government. This frustrated many "modernisers" like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, for whom his sudden death in May 1994 came at a very convenient time.

He was succeeded as Leader by Tony Blair, who undertook the subsequent re-branding of Labour as New Labour, then winning the 1997 general election.

Death

Smith died on 12 May 1994, the day after attending a gala dinner organised by Julia Hobsbawm and Sarah Brown of Hobsbawm Macaulay Communications. At the time he was a director of the Britain-Russia Centre and the British East-West Centre.

Blair's premonition

In Tony Blair’s memoirs, A Journey (2010), he writes of a premonition of John Smith's death. At the beginning of April 1994, when John Smith was leader of the Labour Party, Blair was staying in a hotel in Paris with his wife Cherie. Blair writes:

I remember waking up the first morning and then waking Cherie. I said to her “If John dies, I will be leader, not Gordon (Brown). And somehow I think this will happen. I just think it will.

 

Related Quotation

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Gareth Williams (politician)	“The Labour party has too often lost major figures at the peak of their careers – from Hugh Gaitskell and Tony Crosland to John Smith and Donald Dewar.”	Gareth Williams (politician)	2013

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1986	25 April 1986	27 April 1986	Scotland Gleneagles Hotel	The 34th Bilderberg, 109 participants
Bilderberg/1989	12 May 1989	14 May 1989	Spain Galicia La Toja Island	37th Bilderberg meeting, 110 guests
Bilderberg/1991	6 June 1991	9 June 1991	Germany Baden-Baden Steigenberger Hotel Badischer Hof	The 39th Bilderberg, 114 guests

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