Funeral tributes to Lord Mackay

Lord Mackay once served as social security minister

Family, friends and colleagues of Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish gathered to pay their final respects to him on Wednesday.

The former Conservative Government minister collapsed and died last week following a marathon sitting in the House of Lords.

Scottish First Minister Henry McLeish and many of Lord Mackay's fellow Tories, including Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who is now president of the party north of the Border, were present at Glasgow Cathedral.

Professor Ross Harper, of Strathclyde University, delivered the eulogy to the late 62-year-old peer.

I will remember him for his honesty and complete integrity which transcended party politics

Professor Ross Harper

Prof Harper - a close friend of the late peer - said he had spoken to many people in the last week who had struggled to comprehend Lord Mackay's sudden death.

He said: "John Mackay was a fit, vigorous man, in his early sixties and on the threshold of a new career chairing the Committee of the House of Lords.

"This is a position second only to Lord Chancellor and he was not only chosen by Conservatives but by friends and colleagues from all political parties."

Prof Harper said Lord Mackay was a man of three parts: "family, politics and angling".

'A friend'

He said John Major knew he had been politically under-used and had promoted him to the House of Lords.

Prof Harper said: "I will remember him for his honesty and complete integrity which transcended party politics.

"We are pleased to have known him as a colleague and even prouder to have known him as a friend."

Others mourners included Scottish Tory leader David McLetchie, former Scottish Office Minister Lord James Douglas Hamilton and Raymond Robertson, the chairman of the party in Scotland.

The leader of the Scottish National Party, John Swinney, was also present.

Heart attack

The cathedral was the scene of the funeral of former Scottish First Minister Donald Dewar in October last year.

After the funeral, Lord Mackay's body was taken to a cemetery in Inveraray, Argyll and Bute, for a private burial.

Lord Mackay had been on duty on the Woolsack for 13 hours before he collapsed last week, with the house eventually rising at 0332GMT.

Speaker

His political career began as a councillor in Oban, the Argyll town where he also worked as a maths teacher.

He stood unsuccessfully as Tory candidate for the Western Isles and Argyll in the two general elections of 1974, before seizing Argyll from the nationalists five years later.

Ten years later, after losing his seat, he was appointed chief executive of the Tory party in Scotland, before becoming a peer in 1991.

He held a string of ministerial posts in the last six years of the John Major administration, before giving up his party role in December 1998 to become the Lord Chancellor's deputy as Speaker of the House of Lords.