Bill Walker
Kilt-wearing Scottish Tory MP who skirmished with Malcolm Rifkind and rebelled over Maastricht
BILL WALKER, who has died aged 88, was a maverick Thatcherite MP whose 18-year Commons career ended with the Scottish Conservatives’ “wipe-out” of 1997. At one point the only Tory MP north of the border never to have been a minister, Walker rated himself his party’s radical conscience. The Scotsman reckoned he “probably caused the Scottish Office more aggro than any of the opposition parties”.
Walker was unquestionably a fighter. He twice saw off attempts by local lairds to oust him as candidate for Perth & East Perthshire, and just before winning the seat in 1979 survived a near-fatal gliding accident, surgeons having to rebuild his spine.
But he is best remembered for his part in an abortive putsch prior to the Scottish party’s 1990 conference, aimed at replacing Malcolm Rifkind as Scottish Secretary with Michael Forsyth. Walker, then the Tories’ Scottish vice-chairman, was the only conspirator to put his head over the parapet. Margaret Thatcher rode to Rifkind’s rescue. By the time John Major gave Forsyth the job, Rifkind was Foreign Secretary.
Flying was Walker’s greatest passion and he was known humorously as “Squadron Leader Walker”. A former senior gliding instructor with the RAF, he was secretary of the RAF parliamentary group and vicechairman of the Conservative backbench aviation committee, staunchly defending British Airways.
For a time the Scottish Tories’ defence spokesman, he opposed the disbanding of Scottish regiments and lambasted the Bishop of St Andrews for saying there had been “no real winner” in the 1991 Gulf War. Though teetotal, Walker – with several distilleries in his constituency – championed the whisky industry. In 1988 he got through a Bill giving Scotch the same protection as champagne and cognac.
A fervent Unionist who scorned moves toward devolution, Walker was a deeply patriotic Scot. At Scottish Questions he invariably sported a kilt in the Macdonell of Glengarry hunting tartan; he owned another specially designed for the RAF. He wore a kilt to the 1984 US Democratic convention and at Conservative Party conferences, where he would sit in the front row so that Mrs Thatcher could admire his knees.
William Connoll Walker was born in Dundee on February 10 1929, the son of Charles and Williamina Walker. He left Logie School, Dundee, at 14 to become a messenger, then an office boy. In 1946 he was commissioned into the RAF, staying in the reserve after National Service to become a squadron leader.
After a decade as a salesman, bus driver and general manager, Walker returned to the RAF in 1959 as instructor examiner at the Central Gliding School. By the time of his accident he was commanding officer of 641 Gliding School, RAF Dishforth.
During a spell at the Air Ministry, he was trade union representative for staff at GCHQ. In 1965 he went into the furniture business in Birmingham; for five years he presented ATV’S interior design and antiques programmes. In 1975 he started his own management consultancy business.
In Birmingham Walker became an active Conservative. After fighting Dundee East in October 1974, he was selected for Perth & East Perthshire, held by the SNP’S Douglas Crawford with a majority of 763. No-confidence votes were proposed against him in 1977 and 1978, Walker’s supporters rallying to defeat the second – which had the backing of the constituency executive – by 367 to 226.
Then came his accident, which led to Walker conducting his 1979 campaign from a wheelchair. Capturing the seat by 3,103 votes, he only took his seat that July after further treatment. He was flying again that autumn.
With Mrs Thatcher in power, he joined Right-wingers in pushing James Prior to accelerate his trade union reforms, and called for birching for crimes of violence in Scotland. A horrified Rifkind told him: “The Government cannot possibly recommend something which would be in contravention with the European Court of Human Rights.”
Early in 1981 he talked out a Bill to encourage the Gaelic language from the SNP’S Donald Stewart, saying more of his constituents spoke Polish. Weeks later Walker introduced a less comprehensive measure himself, prompting Stewart to walk out holding his nose.
In 1983 Walker’s constituency was redrawn as North Tayside and he returned to Westminster with a 10,000 majority. In 1986 he was one of 10 Tories to vote against the Single European Act.
At the 1988 party conference he spoke against the Conservatives organising in Ulster, saying Unionist MPS should be offered the Tory whip. He went on to propose direct rule from Westminster for all parts of the UK and a straight choice for Scotland between the Union and independence. By 1991 he had mellowed to propose a Scottish “senate” of local council representatives.
Walker first showed frustration over Rifkind’s stewardship in 1987, calling for the sacking of “old boy network” ministers who did not carry out Thatcherite policies in Scotland. Made vice-chairman of the Scottish party in 1989, he skirmished with Rifkind over reforms to Scots law which, he feared, would hurt country solicitors and make divorce too easy.
In November 1990 Walker voted against the Government after John Major concluded the Maastricht treaty, resigning his party vice-chairmanship. Lady Thatcher pointedly campaigned for him in the 1992 election, when he held his seat by 3,995 votes.
As battle lines were drawn over Maastricht, Walker took the chair of the Conservative European Reform Group, claiming the whips had threatened potential rebels with the exposure of private indiscretions. He called for a referendum on the treaty, and in the crucial division in July 1993 insisted on voting against the Government despite having pleurisy and being “paired” by the whips. They threatened “the most severe disciplinary action”, but none ensued.
Walker criticised Major over Europe, but said he would back him against a challenge from Michael Heseltine or Kenneth Clarke. When the challenge came in 1995 it was from John Redwood, whom Walker enthusiastically supported.
In 1994 a Sunday Times “sting” identified Walker as one of several MPS ready to accept cash for tabling questions. Two were suspended from the Commons; Walker, who had fortunately rung back to say the £1,000 should go to his favourite charity, was found to have “acted unwisely”.
At the 1997 election he lost North Tayside to the SNP’S John Swinney by 5,141 votes. From 2000 to 2002 he was deputy chairman of the Scottish Conservatives.
He chaired the Commons Scout group and the Scotland and Northern Ireland Air Cadet Council, and was vice president of the British Gliding Association. He was appointed MBE in 1988.
Bill Walker married Mavis Lambert in 1956; she survives him with their three daughters.
Bill Walker, born February 10 1929, died June 6 2017