Neil McBride (13 April 1910 – 9 September 1974) was a British Labour Party politician. He was

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for Swansea East from a by-election in 1963 until his death, aged 64, shortly before the October 1974 general election. He was a

government whip A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. This means ensuring that members of the party vote according to the party platform, rather than according to their own individual ideology o ...

from 1966 to 1970.

Life

Neil McBride, named after his father, was born in Neilstown in Scotland. He attended his local Catholic school, St. Thomas's School and later the National Labour College. He worked for James Brown and Co. of Clydebank as a brass finisher until his election to parliament in 1963. McBride's hobbies included reading and the spread of socialism. He also was a keen traveller, travelling to various parts of Europe, Africa, South America and the Middle East. He married Delia Maloney from Paisley on 12 June 1937. They lived in

Brynhyfryd, Swansea Brynhyfryd is a small village in Swansea, Wales mostly within the Cwmbwrla Cwmbwrla ( en, Bwrla valley) is a residential area and community of Swansea in Wales, within the Cwmbwrla ward of the city. Located on rising ground about 1 mile (1.6&n ...

. Neil died on 9 September 1974 in his home after a seven-month illness.

Political career

McBride began his political career by joining the

Amalgamated Engineering Union The Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) was a major United Kingdom, British trade union. It merged with the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union to form the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union in 1992. History ...

in 1937 followed by the Labour Party in 1940, in addition to being part of the

Co-operative Party The Co-operative Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom, supporting co-operative values and principles. Established in 1917, the Co-operative Party was founded by co-operative societies to campaign politically for the fair ...

and the Paisley Labour Party; he served as chairman of Paisley CLP 1950–62. In the October 1951, McBride contested in Perth and East Perthshire but was unsuccessful. Similarly, he lost the High Peak division of Derbyshire in 1955. From 1964 to 1966, McBride was both secretary to the PLP trades union group and chairman of the PLP transport committee. Neil took over from D.L.Mort as the Swansea East MP in March 1963 following a by-election. He was the third Scottish man ever to represent a constituency in Wales as MP. As well as government whip1966-70, he served as Lord Commissioner to the Treasury, 1969–70. Though the Labour government was defeated in 1970, McBride maintained his role as opposition whip in parliament. In addition, he was chairman of the Welsh Labour Parliamentary Group, 1972–73. McBride won the February 1974 election by 19,687 votes but never joined the new parliament due to illness.

References

*Times Guide to the House of Commons, February 1974 *https://biography.wales/article/s6-MCBR-NEI-1910 * Bibliography: Who was who? ; Etholiadau'r Ganrif, 1885–1997, 1999; Welsh Hustings ; Dod's Parliamentary Companion ; The Times, 11 Sept. 1974; Western Mail, 10 Sept. 1974.

External links

* 1910 births 1974 deaths Amalgamated Engineering Union-sponsored MPs Welsh Labour Party MPs Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Swansea constituencies UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970 {{Wales-Labour-UK-MP-stub