Jim Sillars

James Sillars (born 4 October 1937) is a Scottish politician and campaigner for Scottish independence. Sillars served as a Labour Party MP for South Ayrshire from 1970 to 1976. He founded and led the pro- Scottish Home Rule Scottish Labour Party in 1976, continuing as MP for South Ayrshire until he lost the seat in 1979.

Sillars joined the Scottish National Party in 1980 and later served as MP for Glasgow Govan after winning a by-election in 1988, and was Depute Leader of the Scottish National Party. He was married to Margo MacDonald until her death in 2014.

Early life and career

Sillars was born in Ayr, the son of Matthew, a railwayman, and Agnes Sillars (''née'' Sproat), a carpet weaver. He was educated at Newton Park School and Ayr Academy. After leaving school he worked as an apprentice plasterer, before following his father into working on the railways. Sillars served as a radio operator in the Royal Navy from 1956 to 1960, before becoming a firefighter. It was as a fireman that he became more active politically, through the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), and he joined the Labour Party in 1960. He served as a member of Ayr Town Council from 1962 to 1970, and was Head of Organisation and Social Services at the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) from 1968 to 1970.

Political career

Labour Party and SLP breakaway

Sillars was elected at a by-election in 1970 as Member of Parliament (MP) for South Ayrshire constituency, representing the Labour Party. He became well known as an articulate, intellectual left-winger, strongly in favour of the establishment of a devolved Scottish Assembly.

In 1976 he led a breakaway Scottish Labour Party (SLP). The formation of the SLP was inspired primarily by the failure of the then Labour Government to secure a Scottish Assembly. Sillars threw himself into establishing the SLP as a political force, but ultimately it collapsed following the 1979 general election. At that election the SLP had nominated a mere three candidates (including Sillars who was attempting to hold on to his South Ayrshire seat). Only Sillars came remotely close to winning and it was this failure to secure a meaningful share of the vote that prompted the decision to disband.

Scottish National Party

In the early 1980s, Sillars (along with many other former SLP members) joined the Scottish National Party (SNP). Being a left-winger he had fostered close links with the SNP internal 79 Group; who had encouraged him to join. Along with the 79 Group and the former SLP members in the SNP, Sillars started to shape the SNP as a clearly defined, left-of-centre party. Policies adopted included the support of a non-payment scheme in relation to the poll tax introduced by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher, as well as the policy of independence within the European Union, of which Sillars was a leading exponent. Sillars also started talking in terms of direct action to bring prominence to the Scottish independence cause, stating that: "we must be prepared to hear the sound of cell doors crashing behind us if we are prepared to win independence".

Having failed to win the Linlithgow seat from Tam Dalyell of the Labour Party at the 1987 general election, Sillars was chosen to be the SNP candidate for the Glasgow Govan by-election, held on 10 November 1988. Govan was a Labour seat (although Sillars's wife Margo MacDonald had won it for the SNP in a by-election fifteen years previously, in 1973), but Sillars won a dramatic victory over Labour's Bob Gillespie. A Labour press officer drafted from London for the campaign later recalled the Proclaimers "driving round Govan on the back of a flatbed truck urging everyone to kick Labour where it hurt".

At the 1991 party conference, Sillars was elected the SNP's Depute Leader, beating Alasdair Morgan by 279 votes to 184. Many had been surprised that he did not stand for the party leadership when it became available in 1990. The 1992 general election proved a disappointment for Sillars personally; as he lost his Glasgow Govan seat to Ian Davidson of the Labour Party. It was at this time that Sillars made his famous comment that "Scotland has too many ninety-minute patriots whose nationalist outpourings are expressed only at major sporting events". This comment proved the beginning of a break with the SNP leadership; the leader at the time, Alex Salmond, had been a Sillars ally, but his comments in the aftermath of the 1992 general election (and it is also suspected the fact that Sillars supported Salmond's opponent in the leadership contest, Margaret Ewing) started this break.

Scottish Parliament

Unlike his wife, Sillars called for abstention on the 1997 Scottish devolution referendum, He accused Salmond of having no strategy for full independence and claimed the referendum was a fraud as "the SNP says it is a stepping stone to independence and Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar insists it will strengthen the Union", adding "Abstention is the best form of contempt". SNP chief executive Mike Russell, however, shut down Sillars claims: "Jim's view is clearly not shared by the membership. Our National Council voted overwhelmingly by over 300 to 6 for the clear and constructive Yes, Yes strategy. The alternative that Jim seems to support is the politics of despair."

In June 2004, Sillars called for the resignation of John Swinney as SNP leader and also claimed that the party's acceptance of devolution had been a tactical blunder. He told BBC Radio Scotland's '' Sunday Live'' programme: "Devolution has parochialised Scottish politics and marginalised Scotland at Westminster. I would challenge any of your listeners. Turn to your partner, wife, friend and say 'name me 12 Westminster members of parliament' and they'll be hard pushed to do that. Not because they're dummies, but the Scottish media hardly gives them any coverage from a Westminster point of view, so the people in the big league, they don't really count." In a 2019 interview with ''Tribune'' magazine, Sillars said that he felt vindicated over his decision to oppose devolution. "The creation of Holyrood has narrowed the political intellectual spectrum in Scotland, and provincialised the nation," he claimed. "They seem to be happy arguing about gender equality, smacking children, and who spends enough money in the health service. Where is the imagination?"

On 3 March 2022, the '' Daily Record'' revealed that Sillars had donated £2,000 to Labour MSP Jackie Baillie during the 2021 Scottish Parliament election campaign. According to the Electoral Commission, Sillars made two separate donations of £1,000 in the weeks before polling day. Baillie retained her seat in Dumbarton, thus depriving the SNP of a majority at Holyrood. Explaining his decision, Sillars said he believed Baillie was "a very impressive member of Parliament" and that he had been impressed with her performance on the Holyrood committee scrutinising the Government's unlawful probe into sexual misconduct allegations into Alex Salmond. "She was a stand out on that committee," he said. "I would prefer her in the parliament to a clone on the backbenches. I don't think there is any doubt she is an asset to the parliament. My concern, in donating to Jackie Baillie, was to have a very able person in parliament. I didn't want someone with considerable ability to disappear." When asked if his donation could have helped Baillie win and ultimately deprived the SNP of an outright majority, Sillars responded: "If that was a consequence of it, so be it." Responding to the revelations, Tony Giugliano, the SNP candidate whom Baillie defeated at the election, said: "Mr Sillars has more in common with Jackie Baillie than he does with the SNP these days - so I'm not surprised. It's only a matter of time before he's asked to be the frontman for the next Better Together campaign."

European Union

In January 2016, contrary to the SNP position, he announced he would campaign in favour of British withdrawal from the European Union during the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. He said: "I think he EUis a profoundly undemocratic organisation which has shown a callous disregard for people, in Portugal, Spain and Greece for example. They've been willing to make people destitute - beggar nations - in pursuit of a single policy to create a United States of Europe irrespective of whether the people want it."

The week before the EU referendum was held, Sillars criticised claims by First Minister and SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon that leaving the EU would put Scots "at the mercy of the most right-wing Tory government in modern history." He told the BBC
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