Former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell dies | Politics News

Former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell has died aged 84.

The MP for North East Fife from 1987 to 2015, he served as Lib Dem leader from 2006 to 2007.

He was made a life peer in 2015 and was known as the Lord Campbell of Pittenweem, but his friends knew him as Ming.

His grandson, Gregor Grant-Suttie, said Lord Campbell died in London after a period of respite care.

He had been planning to return to Scotland but died “peacefully” at the Kyn Hurlingham care home in the presence of his grandson.

Mr Grant-Suttie said that one of his final days was spent watching the Liberal Democrat party conference and enjoying video messages from political friends.

He said: “The myriad of accolades and awards he collected in his professional life paled in comparison to his achievements as a husband, father figure, grandfather, and friend.”

Lord Campbell’s grandson added that he was a “rare breed of Scotsman whose contribution and ideas spanned so much further than his home country’s border”, and gave Scotland “the ability to be extremely proud of one of their own”.

Before moving into politics, Lord Campbell was an athlete, famously breaking Olympic gold medallist Wyndham Halswelle’s 53-year-old Scottish 300 yards record in 1961 before competing at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo for the Great Britain team in the 200 metres and 4×100 metre relay.

He also held the British 100m record from 1967 to 1974, beating aspiring athlete OJ Simpson with a 10.2 second race.

Lord Campbell became well-known for his opposition to the 2003 Iraq War, when he was the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman and he argued Tony Blair’s government should publish the attorney general’s secret advice on the war’s legality.

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