BRIAN WILSON, one of Tony Blair’s closest ministerial allies, ended months of speculation yesterday by announcing that he is to quit frontline politics at next year’s general election.
Mr Wilson, the MP for Cunninghame North since 1987, has held a range of ministerial jobs up to minister of state level since Labour came to power in 1997. His decision to stand down comes only a few months after Mr Blair appointed him as a special representative on the reconstruction of Iraq.
He has decided to quit the Commons at the comparatively early age of 55. He told The Times yesterday that he had decided to go for “a combination of reasons”, one of which was what he said was the pressure politics exerted on family life.
“I don’t want to use the term ‘spending more time with my family’ but rather than be away all the time, there comes a time to draw the line,” he said.
Mr Wilson said that he had not decided what he wanted to concentrate on in the future but he will not be short of job offers from the public and private sector. He is also an accomplished journalist and can expect to be wooed by newspapers keen to make regular use of his acerbic and fluent writing style.
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In his political career Mr Wilson has managed to combine an image as a candid radical with total loyalty to New Labour. Mr Blair, shortly after he became Labour leader, had cause to be grateful to him for the way he convinced many waverers in the party to back the decision to abandon Clause Four in the mid-Nineties.
He has served in several government departments, including Scotland, Industry, the Foreign Office and Energy, but never fulfilled widespread predictions that he would make it into Cabinet.
He said yesterday: “I have had many good jobs but I suppose I was not really going anywhere. I do not harbour any sense of disappointment or bitterness. It was the way the cookie crumbled. I have had the privilege of having ministerial jobs in areas in which I was deeply interested. I have never thought of politics as a lifetime career. What is the point in announcing in seven or eight years’ time that you are going when you may be too old to do anything else.
“I always supported New Labour because I did not think there was any inherent contradiction between radical policies and New Labour.”
Some observers feel that Mr Wilson’s Cabinet prospects were blighted by long-running tensions between him and Gordon Brown. They both shot to prominence in the Scottish Labour Party around the same time in the mid-to late Seventies. The sense of rivalry was exacerbated by their contrasting positions on the first Scottish devolution referendum in 1979 when Mr Brown was a fervent supporter of home rule and Mr Wilson played a major part in the “No” campaign.
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It has been widely known at Westminster that the two did not get on, although one Wilson ally claimed yesterday that the rivalry was entirely one-sided. “Gordon knew that Brian was clever and looked on him as one clever Scot too far.”
It has even been suggested that the Prime Minister, despite his admiration for Mr Wilson, never gave him a Cabinet job for fear of annoying Mr Brown. That admiration was apparent yesterday when Mr Blair paid tribute to Mr Wilson, describing him as “a first class minister and politician and a good friend over many years.”
Mr Wilson has ruled out a move to the House of Lords and may use part of his new-found freedom to renew his interest in the West Highland Free Press, the local newspaper he founded and in which he retains a major shareholding. There is no chance either of him seeking election to the Scottish Parliament.
While he now accepts that he lost the argument over devolution, he is still thought to be deeply sceptical about the need for a Parliament in Edinburgh and about what he sees as a lack of talent and fresh thinking there.