Former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell dies aged 84

Former liberal democratic leader Sir Menzies Campbell died at the age of 84.

As Sir Menzies or Ming is widely known, he led the liberal democrats from 2006 to 2007 and became the North East Fife deputy in Westminster for 28 years.

In his first career as a sprinter, he broke 100 million records from 1967 to 1974 and ran at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics – Flying Scotsman.

Ed Davey, Lib Dem, described Sir Menzies as a “private public official and a real liberal giant”.

He said: “The principled leadership against the Iraq war was a sign of his morality, courage and wisdom.

“But beyond that, he was an incredibly warm and compassionate friend and colleague. We will miss him very much.”

Sir Menzies first stood as a candidate for liberal democrats in 1976, but did not win the election zone for 11 years.

He was a famous critic of the Iraq War, which he had held for 14 years.

In 2015, he became a member of the House of Lords. His official title was Baron Campbell from Pittenweem.

Scottish liberal democratic leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said Sir Menzies’s “most respected politicians of the generation”.

He said: “The first thing I did was to deliver brochures to Ming for Ming on the morning of his first election to Parliament in 1987.

“He was my deputy, he was my mind teacher, and he was my friend. From the Olympic track to the Westminster benches, his contribution to public life will be remembered for a long time.”

North East Fife’s current deputy Wendy Chamberlain, Sir Menzies’in “as an important figure” in the region, he said.

“His contributions to our communities, the University of St Andrews, Scotland and the UK could not be measured.

“Although he found the passage of his beloved Elspeth to withdraw until the last weeks of his life, he was still traveling to London to contribute to the House of Lords.”

On May 22, 1941, he was born in Walter Menzies Campbell, and Sir Menzies was brought to a Glasgow Tenement.

During the Vietnam War, he attended the University of Stanford in California and later became a lawyer.

Sir Menzies was called to the Scottish bar in 1968 and in 1982 he made a QC (last KC). The law gave him a lucrative career and continued to work during his time in politics.

For more than 50 years, his wife Elspeth died in June 2023 – he described him as “my constant political friend, my courage and my first defense line forever”.