Brian Wilson (Labour politician)
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The Right Honourable Brian Wilson |
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|---|---|
| Minister of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs | |
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In office 24 January 2001 – 11 June 2001 |
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| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Peter Hain |
| Succeeded by | Denis MacShane |
| Minister of State for Trade | |
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In office 28 July 1998 – 28 July 1999 |
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| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Member of Parliament for Cunninghame North |
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In office 12 June 1987 – 11 April 2005 |
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| Preceded by | John Corrie |
| Succeeded by | Constituency Abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
13 December 1948 Dunoon, Scotland |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | University of Dundee, Cardiff University |
Brian David Henderson Wilson (born 13 December 1948 in Dunoon, Scotland) is a politician in the United Kingdom. He was Labour Party Member of Parliament from 1987 until 2005 and served as a Minister of State from 1997 to 2003 (Scottish Office 1997–1998, Department of Trade and Industry 1998–1999, Scottish Office 1999–2001, Foreign Office 2001 and Energy Minister, DTI 2001–2003). After standing down as a Minister prior to his departure from Parliament, he was asked by Tony Blair to act as the Prime Minister's Special Representative on Overseas Trade.
Educated at Dunoon Grammar School, the University of Dundee and University College, Cardiff - where he was one of the first intake of 16 to the first-ever postgraduate journalism course in the UK, run by Tom Hopkinson of Picture Post fame- Wilson was the founding editor and publisher of the West Highland Free Press which he established along with three friends from Dundee University. In his student days, they had worked together promoting entertainment. in a BBC Alba documentary on his career, Wilson described promoting Pink Floyd in Dunoon (September 1968) as "the apex of my career". The early days of the West Highland Free Press were subsidised by revenue from entertainment promotion.
He was a member of the Scottish National Party for a short time in his teens, but shortly after the formation of the West Highland Free Press , which was launched in April 1972, joined the Labour Party and was soon invited to stand as its candidate in Ross and Cromarty which he contested in October 1974. He stood in two other Highlands and Islands constituencies—Inverness-shire and the Western Isles—in 1979 and 1983 respectively. An opponent of devolution, which he believed would work to the disadvantage of Scotland's more peripheral areas, in 1978 he was chairman of the "Labour Vote No Campaign", which called for a "no" vote in the Scottish devolution referendum, 1979 on whether to have a Scottish Assembly.
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