British statesman, born in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, C Scotland, UK. He studied at Edinburgh University, trained as a teacher, then became an MP in 1974. He was opposition spokesman for the Treasury and economic affairs (19803), then held various posts in the shadow cabinet, including spokesman on health and social security (198792). He managed the leadership campaigns of Neil Kinnock (1983) and John Smith (1992). Other posts included chief opposition spokesman on trade and industry (19924) and foreign affairs (19947), and chair of the Labour Party (19968). He became secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs in the Blair government (1997) and Leader of the House of Commons (2001), but resigned in March 2003 over his opposition to war with Iraq. He suffered a fatal heart attack while on a hill-walking holiday in the Scottish Highlands.
| Robin Cook | |
|---|---|
|
The Rt Hon. Robin Cook (December 1997) |
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| Born |
February 28, 1946 Bellshill, Scotland |
| Died |
August 6, 2005 Inverness, Scotland |
| Occupation | Politician |
Robert Finlayson Cook, known as Robin Cook, (February 28, 1946 – August 6, 2005), was a politician in the British Labour Party.
Background and personal life
Robin Cook was born in Bellshill, Scotland, the only son of Peter and Christina Cook. He was introduced to horse racing by his wife, Margaret Cook (whom he married in 1969 and with whom he had two sons, Peter and Christopher) and worked as a racing tipster in his spare time.
Shortly after he became Foreign Secretary, he ended his marriage with Margaret, revealing that he had an extra-marital affair with one of his staff, Gaynor Regan.
Parliamentary career
Cook unsuccessfully contested the Edinburgh North constituency in the 1970 general election, but was elected to the House of Commons at the February 1974 general election as Member of Parliament for Edinburgh Central.
In parliament, joined the left-wing Tribune Group of the Parliamentary Labour Party and frequently opposed the policies of the Wilson and Callaghan governments. Despite his role in modernising the party under Kinnock and Smith, Cook was said to be never fully committed to Blair's "New Labour" project, considering it a step too far to the right.
He became known as a brilliant parliamentary debater, and rose through the party ranks, becoming a frontbench spokesman in 1980, and reaching the Shadow Cabinet in 1987, as Shadow Social Services Secretary. He was Shadow Health Secretary (1989-92) and Shadow Trade Secretary (1992-94), before taking on foreign affairs in 1994, the post he would become most identified with (Shadow Foreign Secretary 1994-97, Foreign Secretary 1997-2001).
In 1994, following the death of John Smith, he ruled himself out of contention for the Labour leadership, apparently on the grounds that he was insufficiently attractive to be an election winner, although two close family bereavements in the week in which the decision had to be made may have contributed.
On 26 February 1996, following the publication of the Scott Report into the 'Arms-to-Iraq' affair, he made a famous speech in response to the then President of the Board of Trade Ian Lang in which he said "this is not just a Government which does not know how to accept blame; His parliamentary performance on the occasion of the publication of the five-volume, 2,000-page Scott Report — which he claimed he was given just two hours to read before the relevant debate, thus giving him three seconds to read every page — was widely praised on both sides of the House as one of the best performances the Commons had seen in years, and one of Cook's finest hours.
As Joint Chair (alongside Liberal Democrat MP Robert Maclennan) of the Labour-Liberal Democrat Joint Consultative Committee on Constitutional Reform, Cook brokered the 'Cook-Maclennan Agreement' that laid the basis for the fundamental reshaping of the British constitution outlined in Labour's 1997 General Election manifesto.
After his 2003 resignation from the Cabinet, Cook remained an active backbench Member of Parliament until his death. After leaving the Government, Cook was a leading analyst of the decision to go to war in Iraq, giving evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee which was later relevant during the Hutton and Butler inquiries.
In the years after his exit from the Foreign Office, and particularly since his resignation from the Cabinet, Cook made up with Gordon Brown after decades of personal animosity — an unlikely reconciliation after a mediation attempt by Frank Dobson in the early 1990s had seen Dobson conclude (to John Smith) "You're right. Cook and Brown focused on their common political ground, discussing how to firmly entrench progressive politics after the exit of Tony Blair. Chris Smith said in 2005 that in recent years Cook had been setting out a vision of "libertarian, democratic socialism that was beginning to break the sometimes sterile boundaries of 'old' and 'New' Labour labels." Some commentators and senior politicians said that Cook seemed destined for a senior Cabinet post under a Brown premiership.
In government
Foreign Secretary
With the election of a Labour government at the 1997 general election, Cook became Foreign Secretary.
His term as Foreign Secretary was marked by British interventions in Kosovo and Sierra Leone.
Leader of the House of Commons
After the 2001 general election he was moved, against his wishes, from the Foreign Office to be Leader of the House of Commons. This was widely seen as a demotion — although it is a Cabinet post, it is substantially less prestigious than the Foreign Office — and Cook nearly turned it down. According to The Observer, it was Blair's fears over political battles within the Cabinet over Europe, and especially the euro, which saw him unexpectedly demote the pro-European Cook.
As Leader of the House he was responsible for reforming the hours and practices of the Commons and for leading the debate on reform of the House of Lords.
In early 2003, during a live television appearance on BBC current affairs show Question Time, he was inadvertently referred to as "Robin cock" by David Dimbleby. The episode also saw Cook in the uncomfortable position of defending the Government's stance over the impending invasion of Iraq, weeks before his resignation over the issue.
He documented his time as Leader of the House of Commons in a widely acclaimed book 'The Point of Departure', which discussed in diary form his efforts to reform the House of Lords and to persuade his ministerial colleagues, including Tony Blair, to distance the Labour Government from the foreign policy of the Bush administration.
Resignation over Iraq war
Wikisource has original text related to this article: Robin Cook's Resignation SpeechIn early 2003 he was reported to be one of the cabinet's chief opponents of military action against Iraq, and on March 17 he resigned from the Cabinet. Cook's resignation speech in the House of Commons, received with an unprecedented standing ovation by fellow MPs, was described by the BBC's Andrew Marr as "without doubt one of the most effective, brilliant, resignation speeches in modern British politics." Most unusually for the British parliament, Cook's speech was met with growing applause from all sides of the House (beginning with Labour and Liberal Democrat critics of the war), and from the public gallery.
Death and funeral
On August 6, 2005, Cook was climbing the mountain Ben Stack in Sutherland, Scotland, with Gaynor, when he suffered a severe heart attack. The post mortem revealed that Cook died of hypertensive heart disease .
A funeral service was held on August 12, 2005, at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, even though Cook had been an atheist . British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was on holiday at the time, did not attend the funeral, possibly due to the mutual disenchantment between Cook and Blair regarding the war in Iraq. In his speech at the funeral, Cook's friend, the eccentric racing pundit, John McCririck, denounced Blair for not attending. Though many thought Blair had snubbed Cook, some of the congregation felt that what McCririck had said was inappropriate, especially as he was invited to talk about Cook's love for horse racing.
Controversy over death
There has been some controversy surrounding the death of Mr Cook.
He had been injured in the fall following his heart attack, suffering a broken neck, but the post mortem clearly showed that he had died instantly from a severe heart attack, brought on by high blood pressure.
It is quite clear that Mr Cook was suffering from advanced heart disease and that the fatal heart attack was brought on by the physical exertion of climbing Ben Stack.
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