George Cunningham
Labour MP who unintentionally brought down his own government, triggering the 1979 election
GEORGE CUNNINGHAM, who has died aged 87, was arguably the only backbench MP to have brought down his own government – though he steadfastly denied having done so.
It was Cunningham, a Scots-born Labour MP in a London seat, whose wrecking amendment to the Callaghan government’s Scotland Bill created a stalemate in the 1979 devolution referendum, triggering a noconfidence vote which precipitated an election won by Margaret Thatcher.
The ruggedly independent Cunningham, who once warned that votes on party lines were “killing the Commons stone dead”, spent 13 years as MP for Islington South-west (later Islington South and Finsbury), breaking with Labour in 1981 before joining the SDP.
He had made his reputation by predicting in 1973 the scandal that would engulf the Crown Agents as a result of their reckless financial dealings, branding them “a gigantic cuckoo in the City’s nest” as ministers insisted nothing was amiss. But it was the “Cunningham amendment” that secured his place in history.
This canny proposition required the support of 40 per cent of the Scottish electorate for a “Yes” vote for devolution to take effect. Cunningham, one of seven Labour MPS to oppose devolution outright, made no secret that his amendment was aimed at wrecking the Bill.
It was pushed through a heated Committee Stage in January 1978, with majorities of 15 and 26, by a coalition of Labour rebels and Tories in what devolutionists branded a “Burns Night plot”.
When the referendum was held on March 1 1979, voting was 51.6 to 48.4 per cent in favour of a Scottish Assembly. But because only 63 per cent of voters turned out, the proportion voting “Yes” was just 32.9 per cent, so the proposition fell.
Outraged, the SNP tabled a noconfidence motion, the Conservatives took it up and amid dramatic scenes on the night of March 28 the Government was defeated by a single vote: 311 to 310. Parliament was dissolved, and in the ensuing election Mrs Thatcher was returned to power with a majority of 44; when the new parliament met, Cunningham was appointed a Labour front-bench spokesman.
George Cunningham was born in Dunfermline on June 10 1931, the son of Harry and Christina Cunningham. Educated at Dunfermline and Blackpool grammar schools, he took degrees from Manchester and London Universities. After National Service with the Royal Artillery, he joined the Commonwealth Relations Office in 1956. The highlight of his service was a two-year posting to Ottawa.
In 1963 the Labour Party recruited Cunningham as its Commonwealth Officer. He was closely involved in the efforts of Harold Wilson’s government to avert a universal declaration of independence by Rhodesia’s prime minister Ian Smith. Early in 1965 he drafted a 500-word warning to Salisbury that Britain would take military action as a last resort if UDI were declared; Wilson demurred and it was never sent. After UDI, Cunningham argued that it might take force to bring Rhodesia back to legality.
After losing in Henley to the Conservative John Hay in 1966, Cunningham returned to Whitehall, serving in the Ministry of Overseas Development, initially under Arthur Bottomley, who as Commonwealth Secretary had sympathised with his hawkish line. Three years later he moved to the Overseas Development Institute as its research officer.
In 1970 Cunningham was comfortably elected for Islington South-west. He joined a group of MPS who funded guerrillas in the “frontline states” bordering Rhodesia, and demanded Uganda’s suspension from the Commonwealth over Idi Amin’s treatment of Asians. He campaigned against “torture” by the security forces in Northern Ireland, and for the abolition of the death penalty there.
Cunningham was firmly opposed to the Common Market, but missed the decisive vote on Britain’s membership in June 1972, defying the whips to go on an all-party visit to Jersey.
Re-elected in 1974 for the redrawn Islington South and Finsbury, he became PPS to the Education Secretary, Reg Prentice. He resigned within months after leading a successful backbench revolt to relax the earnings rule for pensioners.
Despite his views on the EC, Cunningham opposed Labour’s boycott of the European Parliament, and when the party came round to his way of thinking after the 1975 referendum he reported Arthur Scargill to the Committee of Privileges for threatening Num-sponsored MPS who voted to lift it. During 1978-79 he took up a seat at Strasbourg himself.
When Labour committed itself to devolution Cunningham found his cause, warning that it would be the death of national government. Having developed a mastery of parliamentary procedure – in 1976 he was the first MP in 18 years to delay proceedings by “spying strangers” – he succeeded in frustrating the workings of the House, or rather turning them to his advantage. With Tam Dalyell and other foes of devolution, he harassed first a combined Bill for Scotland and Wales and then the Scotland Bill, to which his amendment was eventually appended.
Having played his (unintended) part in returning Labour to opposition, Cunningham served as a home affairs spokesman under Merlyn Rees, and later Roy Hattersley. But his support for Denis Healey when Tony Benn narrowly failed to win the deputy leadership in 1981 brought a challenge from Left-wingers in his constituency.
He was narrowly reselected, but that December quit the Labour Party in protest at the extremism within it. Sitting initially as Independent Labour, he joined the SDP in June 1982, becoming its education and science spokesman.
In the 1983 election he came closer to survival than any other of the defeated Social Democrats, losing to the future Labour Culture Secretary Chris Smith by just 363 votes. Four years later he came within 805 votes of winning his seat back, despite the poor national performance of the SDP/ Liberal Alliance.
From 1984 to 1992 Cunningham was chief executive of the Library Association, campaigning against cuts in the service. He remained a sceptic about devolution, re-emerging during the 1997 referendum to warn that establishing a Scottish Parliament would lead to independence.
He was president of the Study of Parliament Group from 2000 to 2003, and chairman of the General Council for Massage Therapy from 2002 to 2004.
Cunningham had for some 15 years been a resident of the Star & Garter Home, suffering from Alzheimer’s.
George Cunningham married Mavis Walton in 1957. She predeceased him, and he is survived by their son and daughter.
George Cunningham, born June 10 1931, died July 27 2018.