Jimmy Wray
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James Aloysius Joseph Patrick Gabriel Wray<ref name="americanspectator">Aaron Goldstein "Jimmy Wray, R.I.P." Template:Webarchive, The American Spectator, 25 May 2013.</ref> (28 April 1935 – 25 May 2013)<ref>"Jimmy Wray, former Labour MP, dies at 78", telegraph.co.uk, 25 May 2013</ref> was a Scottish politician and Labour Member of Parliament for Glasgow Baillieston and Glasgow Provan.<ref name="BBC2000">"'Jack-the-lad' MP", BBC News, 3 March 2000.</ref>
Born and raised in the Gorbals,<ref name="McKay">Fiona McKay "Estranged wife pays tribute to 'lion of a man' Jimmy Wray", The Herald, 27 May 2013</ref> he was one of eight children born in an economically disadvantaged Roman Catholic family.<ref name="Beacom">Brian Beacom "Jimmy Wray", The Herald, 27 May 2013.</ref> A boxer in his younger days, he was elected as a councillor to the then Glasgow Town Council in 1964 for Kelvinside, and moved over to the larger Strathclyde Regional Council in 1975 for Gorbals. He successfully blocked implementation of fluoridation in court by arguing it violated the 1946 Water Act and the 1968 Medicine Act.Template:When<ref name="americanspectator"/>
Wray became a rag and bone man, a coalman and a lorry driver, owning a fleet of lorries and a coal business, and became a property developer. By the time he became an MP, Wray was a wealthy man.<ref name="Beacom"/> He was on the left-wing of the Labour Party, and joined the Campaign Group. His political stances were Eurosceptic, an advocate of Irish republicanism regarding Northern Ireland,<ref name="Waller">Robert Waller and Byron Criddle The Almanac of British Politics, London and New York: Routledge, 1999 (6th ed.), p. 312.</ref> and opposed to abortion and the abolition of Section 28.<ref>Rory Reynolds, "Former Glasgow MP Jimmy Wray dies at 78", Scotland on Sunday, 26 May 2013</ref> His views on Northern Ireland led him to be tagged "I.R. Wray" by Private Eye.<ref name="Waller"/> In 2002, he attacked the Scottish Parliament, labelling its members "odds and sods".<ref>"MP lays into Scots Labour colleagues", BBC News, 22 March 2002</ref>
Wray stood down as an MP, aged 70, at the 2005 general election following a stroke in December 2003.<ref name="Beacom"/>
Death
Wray died on 25 May 2013 in Mearnskirk Home Hospital in Renfrewshire<ref name="Scotsman obit">Template:Cite news</ref> after suffering from bowel cancer, aged 78.<ref name="McKay"/> He had two daughters and two sons.Template:Citation needed
References
External links
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- 1935 births
- 2013 deaths
- Deaths from cancer in Scotland
- Baillieston
- People from Gorbals
- Councillors in Glasgow
- Scottish Labour councillors
- European democratic socialists
- Scottish Labour MPs
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Glasgow constituencies
- Transport and General Workers' Union-sponsored MPs
- UK MPs 1987–1992
- UK MPs 1992–1997
- UK MPs 1997–2001
- UK MPs 2001–2005
- Scottish people of Irish descent
- Scottish Roman Catholics
- Scottish Eurosceptics
- Scottish republicans
- Deaths from colorectal cancer in the United Kingdom