Ernie Ross

Labour MP Dundee West

Date of birth

27 July 1942

Political profile

Ernie Ross is a long serving backbencher, who has sat in the Commons since 1979.

Like most of Labour's veterans his political stance has shifted over the years, though he has never sat on the frontbench.

He was initially known as a member of the internationalist socialist tendency - a supporter of engagement with the Soviet Union and Cuba, and a member of the left-wing Tribune Group.

He was one of the MPs to nominate Tony Benn in his divisive bid for the party's deputy leadership in 1981.

He sat on the foreign affairs select committee during the 1997 parliament, and leaked an advance copy of the committee's report on arms to Sierra Leone to then Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.

He was suspended from the Commons for ten days, and obliged to resign from the committee.

Contact

Constituency office: 01382 207000