TRIBUTES have been paid to the Labour politician Tom McCabe, who has died at the age of 60.
Hamilton South, the seat he represented in the Scottish Parliament until 2011, was the first constituency to return a result in 1999, making McCabe the first MSP.
He served as the Minister for Parliament in Donald Dewar’s cabinet. Although initially demoted to the backbenches under Jack McConnell, McCabe was later brought back as a deputy health minister and later as the finance minister. McCabe was one of the first politicians to call for the Scottish Executive to be called the Scottish Government, although objections from Scottish Labour MPs prevented it from ever becoming a reality.
He was a central figure in the Scottish Labour movement, if not always a well-liked one; his lack of deference to Westminster often upset colleagues.
In an article after Wendy Alexander resigned as leader, and during the Labour Party’s first spell as the opposition in the Scottish Parliament, McCabe predicted some of the the problems the party would come to face.
“For too long,” he wrote, “there have been Scottish Labour politicians at local government level and at Westminster who have been resentful, and even contemptuous, of the Scottish Parliament. That behaviour needs to stop now if we are to have any chance of regaining ground.”
McCabe warned that unless the Scottish leader had complete control of the party, and realised that the political landscape in Scotland had changed with the election of an SNP government then Labour “could be pushed to the fringes of that new landscape for a very long time”.
Leading the tributes Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy said: “The thoughts and prayers of everybody in the Scottish Labour movement are with Tom McCabe’s family today. That he has died at such a relatively young age and with so much still to give makes it harder to understand and accept.
“Tom McCabe was a good man. He was a dedicated servant of the Labour movement, and was a radical finance minister in the last Scottish Labour Government.
“I always enjoyed Tom’s company except on the golf course, where I could never beat him.
“The dignity he showed in his final few months should act as an inspiration to us all. He will be hugely missed.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “I am deeply saddened to hear of Tom McCabe’s death.
“Tom had an impressive record of public service as an MSP and as a minister in the first post-devolution administration.”
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