Hugh Kerr
Hugh Kerr (born 9 July 1944 in Hurlford, East Ayrshire) is a Scottish politician and a former lecturer in social policy at the University of East London.
Hugh Kerr was elected a Labour Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in June 1994 to represent the euro-constituency of Essex West & Hertfordshire East until 1999.[1]
In November 2011, Hugh Kerr joined the governing Scottish National Party claiming he wants to fight for an "independent Socialist Scotland" within Alex Salmond’s nationalists.
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Surprising win
At the 1994 European Parliamentary Election Hugh Kerr defeated the Conservative incumbent Patricia Rawlings, and was elected as the MEP for Essex West & Hertfordshire East (then comprising the Westminster constituencies of Brentwood and Ongar, Broxbourne, Epping Forest, Harlow, Hertford and Stortford, North East Hertfordshire and Stevenage). In his speech on election night in June 1994, Hugh Kerr chided the defeated Patricia Rawlings (now Baroness Rawlings of Burnham Westgate) for not attending any of the series of pre-election hustings throughout the euro-constituency where local issues had been debated by the other candidates in her absence. Kerr's Press Officer during his successful European Parliamentary Election campaign was former British diplomat Patrick Haseldine.
Old and New Labour
Upon his election in 1994, Kerr based his euro-constituency office - run by Mike Hobday - in the marginal constituency of Harlow providing support for the local Labour party and its nominee Bill Rammell. Kerr fell out with the New Labour government not long after the 1 May 1997 General Election - when Rammell was elected as Harlow's MP - accusing the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, of "stalinist tendencies" for planning to abolish all current euro-constituencies and for introducing a party list regional system for future European elections, and to stifle any criticism by Labour MEPs.
In a House of Commons debate on 27 November 1997, Hugh Kerr was quoted as saying that the gagging "shows that New Labour is increasingly authoritarian and centralised".[2]
The dissident
Hugh Kerr was suspended by Labour's National Executive Committee and later expelled from the Labour Party along with fellow dissident Ken Coates MEP, with whom he then formed the Independent Labour Network. He left the Party of European Socialists and joined forces with The Green Group in the European Parliament, becoming the first Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) MEP. At the June 1999 European Parliament election, with voting on the basis of proportional representation throughout the United Kingdom, Kerr was at the top of the SSP's party list for Scotland's seven European seats but the party's share of the vote was too low to secure his re-election as an MEP.
Back to Scotland
After a period living in Australia, Hugh Kerr returned to Scotland and worked as press officer to Tommy Sheridan MSP. In the May 2003 Scottish Parliamentary Elections, Kerr stood as an SSP candidate for the East Lothian constituency but gained only 1,380 votes (4.42%).[3]
Hugh Kerr was the SSP's #3 candidate at the June 2004 European Parliamentary Election, but it didn't do much better for the SSP than five years earlier. His share of the vote at the Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency in the 2005 General Election slumped to 1.9% (833 votes).[4] Hugh Kerr resigned from the SSP in September 2006 to become the Press Officer of Solidarity, a new party led by Tommy Sheridan.
He was a defence witness in HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan.
Scottish National Party
In November 2011, Hugh Kerr joined the Scottish National Party.[5]
Mr Kerr, who was expelled from Labour in the late-1990s under Tony Blair’s leadership, said that he had opted to join the SNP because the nationalists had "moved to the left" and that he now wanted to work with other "socialists inside" Scotland’s governing party at Holyrood.
Tommy Sheridan’s former press officer also said he would be "delighted" to stand for the SNP as a Holyrood candidate or in the 2012 council’s elections, after contesting a South of Scotland seat in the Scottish Parliament on the Solidarity banner this May. Mr Kerr, who has already been out leafleting for the SNP and is now a member of the party’s Edinburgh Western branch, said that he "wouldn’t be surprised if other comrades" from Solidarity joined the nationalists.
He said: "There are socialists inside the SNP and I hope to contribute to that by doing my bit to create an independent Socialist Scotland."[6]
Darwin to Melbourne
On 11 August 2013, Hugh Kerr announced on his Facebook page:
- "I am riding a motorbike across Australia in September (1st to 21st) from Darwin to Melbourne: 6,400 km including some off road trail riding.
- "So I don't feel bad about missing a month of campaigning for 'Yes', I will accept sponsorship which will go to the 'Yes' campaign.
- "Anything gratefully accepted: make your contributions directly to the 'Yes' campaign or send it to me and I will pass it on and match the funding! Thanks Hugh (and I will of course be campaigning among the Scots diaspora in OZ!)"[7]
References
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