Thomas Graham (5 December 1943 – 16 April 2015) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

Labour Party politician. A native of Glasgow, Graham worked as an engineer before serving on Strathclyde Regional Council from 1978 to 1987. He was elected in 1987 as the Member of Parliament (MP) for

Renfrew West and Inverclyde Renfrew West and Inverclyde was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1983 to 1997. The constituency was created out of, and merged back into, the West Renfrewshire constituency. Boundaries The ...

, defeating the Conservative incumbent Anna McCurley. Following favourable boundary changes in 1997, he was elected for the new seat of Renfrewshire West.

Early years

Graham previously worked for Rolls-Royce as an engineer and as a shop steward for the engineering union AEEU.

McMaster suicide

Following the

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

of his parliamentary colleague Gordon McMaster in July 1997, a long investigation was launched, since in his suicide note McMaster had accused Graham of smearing him that he had a homosexual affair with a 17-year-old employee of Graham's. In September 1998, Graham was expelled from the Labour Party for "bringing the party into disrepute", despite his categorical denials of any wrongdoing. He became an independent and described himself as a 'Scottish Labour' MP. Following his expulsion when Graham was asked where he would be sitting in the House of Commons, he replied, 'On my bum.' In fact, he actually sat on the opposition benches of the Commons but continued to vote with the government on many issues. It was thought that Graham would stand again at the 2001 general election, but he did not do so and quietly retired. His successor was Labour's Jim Sheridan. He died on 20 April 2015 following a brief illness.

References

Guardian bio

WSWS

External links

Graham's maiden speech, in a debate on the Scottish Development Agency Bill
{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham, Tommy 1943 births Politicians from Glasgow People from Renfrewshire Scottish Labour MPs Scottish Labour councillors Independent politicians in Scotland UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 Independent members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom 2015 deaths Politicians affected by a party expulsion process