William Hannan (30 August 1906 – 6 March 1987) was a Scottish Labour Party politician. Educated at North Kelvinside Secondary School, Glasgow, Hannan originally worked as an insurance agent, and from 1941 to 1945 was a member of

Glasgow Corporation The politics of Glasgow, Scotland's largest city by population, are expressed in the deliberations and decisions of Glasgow City Council, in elections to the council, the Scottish Parliament and the UK Parliament. Local government As one o ...

. He was elected as the

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 o ...

(MP) for Glasgow Maryhill at the

1945 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1945. Africa * 1945 South-West African legislative election Asia * 1945 Indian general election Australia * 1945 Fremantle by-election Europe * 1945 Albanian parliamentary election * 1945 Bulgarian ...

, and held the seat until his retirement at the February 1974 general election. He was a

Lord of the Treasury In the United Kingdom there are at least six Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, serving as a commission for the ancient office of Treasurer of the Exchequer. The board consists of the First Lord of the Treasury, the Second Lord of th ...

from 1946 to 1951, and parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to

George Brown George Brown may refer to: Arts and entertainment * George Loring Brown (1814–1889), American landscape painter * George Douglas Brown (1869–1902), Scottish novelist * George Williams Brown (1894–1963), Canadian historian and editor * G ...

at both the Department of Economic Affairs and the Foreign Office from 1964 to 1968. Hannan, a committed pro-European, was one of 69 Labour MPs to break a three-line whip and vote for Britain's entry into the European Economic Community in October 1971. He was, however, opposed to Scottish devolution, and was involved with the 'Scotland is British' campaign prior to the 1979 referendum on Home Rule. Always on the right wing of the Labour Party, in 1981 he became a founder member of the breakaway

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

(SDP), and in February of that year was one of 100 signatories to an advertisement in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' supporting the

Limehouse Declaration The Limehouse Declaration was a statement issued on 25 January 1981 by four senior British Labour politicians, all MPs or former MPs and Cabinet Ministers: Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams. It became known as the Lim ...

.''Guardian'', 5 February 1981

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* 1906 births 1987 deaths Scottish Labour MPs Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Glasgow constituencies UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 Social Democratic Party (UK) politicians Maryhill Politicians from Glasgow Ministers in the Attlee governments, 1945–1951 {{Scotland-Labour-UK-MP-stub