David Steel

(b. Dumbarton, 31 Mar. 1938) British; leader of the Liberal Party 1976 – 88; Baron (life peer 1997) Steel's father was a clergyman and his early schooling was in Edinburgh and Nairobi, followed by Edinburgh University. He became a Liberal MP for Roxburgh, Peebles, and Selkirk at a by-election in 1965. He held the seat until 1983 and then sat for Tweedale. Ettrick, and Lauderdale. When he first entered parliament he was one of only ten Liberal MPs.

As a private member he sponsored the Abortion Act (1967) which legalized abortion up to twenty-eight weeks after gestation. This earned him the long-standing enmity of opponents of abortion. In the small Liberal Party he held a number of posts before becoming leader in 1976. The height of his influence was achieved during the Lib-Lab pact in which his party supported the minority Labour government, between 1977 and 1978. Many of his colleagues thought that Labour ministers were not sufficiently sympathetic to Liberal interests. During the pact he had to battle hard to keep his party in line and more than once threatened resignation.

Steel also worked hard to engineer the alliance between the new Social Democratic Party and the Liberals for the 1983 and 1987 general elections. Indeed, he had dissuaded Roy Jenkins from joining the Liberals in 1980 and urged him to form the SDP. When the Alliance broke up after the 1987 general election and the two parties merged, Steel decided not to stand for the leadership of the new Liberal Democratic Party. However, he remained as foreign affairs spokesman.

Steel worked consistently for a realignment of the party system and hoped for a new centre-left party to emerge. At one time he thought that the Alliance would do this. His relations with the SDP leader David Owen were difficult and he was overshadowed by the latter. Owen was more anti-Labour and Steel was more anti-Conservative.

Steel published his memoirs, Against Goliath, in 1987, and stood down as an MP in 1997.

The British politician Sir David Martin Scott Steel (born 1938) was a Scottish member of Parliament and leader of the Liberal Party beginning in 1976.

David Steel was born on March 31, 1938, in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. His father was the Very Rev. Dr. David Steel, a Calvinist minister. From the age of 11 to 15 Steel was with his family in Kenya, Africa where he developed a sympathetic understanding of the plight of Black Africans. (He was president of the Anti-Apartheid Movement of Great Britain from 1966 to 1969.) He was educated at the Prince of Wales School in Nairobi, and afterwards, back in Scotland, at George Watson's College and at Edinburgh University, where he earned an M.A. in 1960 and an LL.B. in 1962.

At Edinburgh University he joined the Liberal Party, and it provided him with a career for life. He was not able to join the Labour Party because he did not feel "socialist" enough; and he could not accept the Tory Party for its going to war with Egypt over the Suez Canal in 1957. He joined the Liberals, knowing that it was a small party and was unlikely to win electoral votes. The Liberals were strong in Wales and Scotland (the so-called "Celtic fringe") and weak in heavily-populated areas.

As a student he became good friends with Jo Grimond, the leader of the Liberal Party, and managed his election as rector of Edinburgh University. Upon graduation in 1960 Steel was chosen as assistant secretary of the Liberal Party.

He married Judy MacGregor, a college contemporary, in 1962, and when he was elected to a seat in the House of Commons in 1965 they lived in Ettrick Bridge in the Scottish Borders country. At 26, he was the youngest member of Parliament. Steel was organized, hard-working, even-tempered, and rational, which showed up in his work in the House of Commons. The first legislation for which he gained a distinct recognition was his Private Member's Bill to reform the out-of-date abortion law. The law was enacted in 18 months, and it took political skill and very hard work on Steel's part (1967).

Jo Grimond was weary of his job as leader of the party and resigned in 1967; Jeremy Thorpe took his place. The Liberal Party of Gladstone, Asquith, and Lloyd George now experienced a leader - Thorpe - who came to grief on a sordid scandal involving his liaison with a male model and his misuse of party funds (1976). Steel, who had been chief whip and the effective second man in the party, was a candidate for leader to replace Thorpe; he fought a bitter election for that post against John Pardoe and won.

During Steel's early days in the job of leader of the Liberals, the prime minister was James Callaghan (Labour, 1976-1979). Steel struck an understanding with Callaghan ("the Lib-Lab Pact," as some unhappy Liberals called it), about how the Liberals would react to the Conservative (Margaret Thatcher's) motion of no-confidence in Callaghan's government. The Liberals would support the Labour government, provided that they had some say over policy. For instance, there was to be no more nationalization of industry. The experiment lasted 18 months; Steel ended it in the autumn of 1978.

In May 1979 the Conservatives, under Thatcher, swept the board in the election. During the next few months, private conversations between Steel and his friend Roy Jenkins (home secretary in Labour governments of the 1960s and 1970s and president of the European Community in 1979) explored how to form a new party - the Social Democrats - which Jenkins would lead. The Social Democratic Party (SDP) emerged 15 months later, in March 1981, when the "Gang of Four" (ex-Labour ministers) combined: Jenkins, David Owen, Shirley Williams, and William Rodgers. Reputedly, the "Fifth Wheel" was Steel who encouraged the rest to escape from the Labour Party.

In a previous meeting with Jenkins, Steel promised to form an "alliance" between his Liberals and the new party, the Social Democrats. At one time Steel looked for an outright merger of the Social Democrats and the Liberals to form a third party opposing the Conservative and Labour parties. A large segment of the British electorate wanted that too, he thought.

The election of June 1983 was disappointing for the SDP and for Steel's Liberals. Thatcher and her Conservative Party were triumphant in the Falklands War (1982), and that victory over Argentina carried the Tories to victory at election time. SDP strength dwindled to six members of Parliament (at the outset there were 26 members). The Liberals, in contrast, stood at a steady 17 members, but were chagrined at the loss by the SDP. Maybe the British electorate did not want a third party at all.

Two of the Gang of Four lost their seats in Parliament, leaving David Owen (foreign secretary under Callaghan, 1976-1980) and Jenkins. Owen replaced Jenkins as Social Democratic leader, much to Steel's surprise.

The "two Davids" - Steel and Owen - were facing each other. Which would be leader of the merged parties, if they did in fact merge? David Owen had more ministerial ("front-bench," as the English say) experience, and he had more ideas than Steel. David Steel had more members of Parliament behind him and was a television professional (he had been a broadcaster). Perhaps Steel was the first British politician of the television era.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party was not finished. Neil Kinnock, a Welshman, emerged at the leader of the Labour Party (1983). Like Steel, he had an accent that exempted him from any note of class in the class-ridden English society. The leaders of both the Labour and the Liberal parties were from the "Celtic fringe" now - Wales and Scotland. Kinnock's rise in the public-opinion polls was at the expense of David Owen and the Social Democratic Party, not at the expense of David Steel and the Liberals. In the 1987 parliamentary election Thatcher's Conservatives won 376 seats, Kinnock's Labourites 229, and the "Alliance" only 22 seats - 17 Liberals and 5 Social Democrats. Both minor parties then voted to work out a merger. David Owen resigned in protest, leaving David Steel the clear leader in the merged party.

In 1990 Steel became a "Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire" (KBE). The next year, Sir David Steel was awarded the title "Her Majesty's Deputy Lieutenant (DL) for Roxburghshire, Ettick and Lauderdale." He held the post as joint Chairman of the Scottish Constitutional Convention from 1991-1993. An Honorary Doctorate of Merit was bestowed on Steel by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1992.

Further Reading

Additional information on David Steel and the political climate in which he functioned can be found in Hugh Stephenson, Claret and Chips: the Rise of the SDP (London, 1982); Cyril Smith, Big Cyril (London, 1977); and John Newhouse, "Profiles: David Steel," New Yorker (May 21, 1984). David Steel, High Ground of Politics (London, 1979) and A House Divided (London, 1980) provided insights on Steel's philosophy and politics. Steel's autobiography Against Goliath was published in 1990 and as a paperback in 1991.

For other persons named David Steel, see David Steel (disambiguation).

The Right Honourable  The Lord Steel of Aikwood  KT KBE PC
1st Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament
In office 12 May 1999 – 7 May 2003
Preceded by	office created
Succeeded by	George Reid
Leader of Social and Liberal Democrats
In office 3 March 1988 – 16 July 1988
Preceded by	Party Created (With Robert Maclennan
Succeeded by	Paddy Ashdown
Leader of Liberal Party
In office 7 July 1976 – 16 July 1988
Preceded by	Jo Grimond
Succeeded by	Paddy Ashdown
Member of Parliament for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale
In office 11 June 1983 – 2 May 1997
Preceded by	new constituency
Succeeded by	Michael Moore
Member of Parliament for Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles
In office 24 March 1965 – 11 June 1983
Preceded by	Charles Donaldson
Succeeded by	Constituency Abolished
Born	31 March 1938 (1938-03-31) (age 71) Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland
Political party	(1) Liberal Party (2) Liberal Democrats
Religion	Church of Scotland [1]

David Martin Scott Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood, KT, KBE, PC (born 31 March 1938) is a British and Scottish politician and a Liberal Democrat member of the UK House of Lords. He was leader of the Liberal Party from 1976 until its 1988 merger with the Social Democratic Party that formed the Liberal Democrats, and was briefly joint interim leader of the new party, then known as the Social and Liberal Democrats. He was also the first Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, holding that post between 1999 and 2003.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Member of Parliament 2.1 Leader of Liberal Party 2.2 SDP-Liberal Alliance 2.3 Two parties merger 2.4 Retirement and Life Peer 3 Attributes 4 Further reading 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

Early life

David Steel was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland, the son of a Church of Scotland minister also called David Steel, who would later serve as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He was brought up in Scotland and Kenya, and educated at the Prince of Wales School, Nairobi, and George Watson's College in Edinburgh.

Member of Parliament

He first took an active part in Liberal politics at the University of Edinburgh, and after graduating in Law worked for the Scottish Liberal Party and then the BBC before being elected to the House of Commons at the Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles by-election of 1965, becoming the "Baby of the House". He represented this seat until 1983, when he became Member of Parliament for Tweedale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, a new constituency covering much of the same territory.

As an MP he was responsible for introducing, as a Private Member's Bill, the Abortion Act 1967 (see Abortion in the United Kingdom). He also became the Liberal Party's spokesman on employment, and in 1970 its Chief Whip.

Leader of Liberal Party

In 1976, after the downfall of Jeremy Thorpe and a short period in which Jo Grimond acted as caretaker leader, he won the Liberal leadership by a wide margin over fellow MP John Pardoe. At only 38 years old, he was one of the youngest party leaders in British history. In 1977, he led the Liberals into the "Lib-Lab pact" by which they agreed to keep the Labour government in power in return for a degree of prior consultation on policy. Steel has been criticised both then and since for not driving a harder bargain; the opposing case is that the ongoing scandal surrounding Thorpe left the party in a very weak state to face an early general election and Steel was wise to buy himself some time from Callaghan. The unpopularity of the Labour government impaired the Liberals' performance, and Steel's first election as leader, the 1979 general election, saw a decline in Liberal fortunes.

SDP-Liberal Alliance

In 1981, a group of Labour moderates left their party to form the Social Democratic Party. They were joined by the former Labour deputy leader Roy Jenkins who had previously had discussions with Steel about joining the Liberals. Under Jenkins's leadership, the SDP joined the Liberals in the SDP-Liberal Alliance, an electoral alliance that was so promising in its early days that Steel felt able to tell delegates at the Liberal Assembly that year to

"go back to your constituencies and prepare for government."

However, the beginning of the Falklands War radically shifted the attitude of the electorate, and the Conservatives regained the lead in polls from the Alliance. Though the Alliance still secured more than 26% of the popular vote at the 1983 general election - only just behind Labour - its reward in terms of seats was derisory and Steel's hopes of a big political breakthrough were dashed. Shortly afterwards David Owen replaced Roy Jenkins as leader of the SDP and the troubled leadership of the "Two Davids" was inaugurated. It was never an easy relationship - Steel's political sympathies were well to the left of Owen's. Owen had a marked antipathy towards the Liberals though he respected Steel's prior loyalty to his own party contrasting it with Jenkins' lack of interest in preserving the SDP's independence. The relationship was also mercilessly satirised by Spitting Image which portrayed Steel as a squeaky voiced midget, literally in the pocket of Owen. Steel has often stated that he feels this portrayal seriously damaged his image. [2] This portrayal of Steel as weaker than Owen was also present in other satires, such as Private Eye's Battle for Britain strip. The relationship finally fell apart during the 1987 general election when the two contradicted each other both on defence policy and on which party they would do a deal with in the event of a hung Parliament.

Two parties merger

Steel was convinced the answer to these difficulties was a single party with a single leader, and was the chief proponent of the 1988 merger between the Liberals and the SDP. Steel emerged victorious in persuading both parties to accept merger in the teeth of opposition from Owen and radical Liberals such as Michael Meadowcroft but badly mishandled the issuing of a joint policy document. Steel had often been criticised for a lack of interest in policy and it appeared he had agreed to the document – drawn up by politically naive SDP advisers – without reading it. Steel's colleagues rejected it immediately and demanded a re-draft, fatally wounding his authority.

Steel was briefly joint interim leader of the Social and Liberal Democrats (as the new party was at first called) before elections in which he did not stand, before becoming the party's Foreign Affairs spokesman. In 1994 he accepted an invitation from Italian liberals to stand for the European Parliament in that year's elections as a Pan-European gesture. Although not elected he polled very well. He was knighted and received the KBE in 1990.

Retirement and Life Peer

He retired from the House of Commons at the 1997 general election and was made a life peer as Baron Steel of Aikwood, of Ettrick Forest in The Scottish Borders in the same year. He campaigned for Scottish devolution, and in 1999 was elected to the Scottish Parliament as a Liberal Democrat Member of Scottish Parliament for Lothians. He became the first Presiding Officer (speaker) of the Scottish Parliament on 12 May 1999. In this role, he used the style "Sir David Steel", despite his peerage, and had no party allegiance. He stepped down as an MSP when the parliament was dissolved for the 2003 election, but remained as Presiding Officer until he had supervised the election of his successor George Reid on 7 May of that year. He was appointed Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in both 2003 and 2004.

On 30 November 2004, the Queen created Lord Steel of Aikwood a Knight of the Order of the Thistle – the highest honour in Scotland.

Attributes

Lord Steel is a patron of the Burma Campaign UK, the London based group campaigning for human rights and democracy in Burma.

He is also a Vice President of the Friends of the British Library, a charity which provides funding support for the British Library.^[1]

Further reading

• Peter Bartram, David Steel: His Life and Politics (W.H. Allen, 1981)
• David Steel, A House Divided (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1980)
• David Steel, Against Goliath: David Steel's Story (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989)

See also

• General Mediterranean Holdings owned by Anglo-Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi. Lord Steel was a director of it, and was pressured to quit it.

References

1. ^ "Friends of the British Library Annual Report 2006/07". http://www.bl.uk/supportus/pdf/friendsannrep0607.pdf. Retrieved 2009-09-07. 

External links

• David Steel's contributions in Parliament
• Catalogue of the Steel papers at the Archives Division of the London School of Economics.
• Lord Steel of Aikwood profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
• Prince of Wales School:Old Cambrians Society, Nairobi
• We need to rethink my abortion law Steel's thoughts on the abortion debate today.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Charles Donaldson	Member of Parliament for Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles 1965 – 1983	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale 1983 – 1997	Succeeded by Michael Moore
Preceded by Teddy Taylor	Baby of the House 1965 – 1966	Succeeded by John Ryan
Party political offices
Preceded by Eric Lubbock	Liberal Party Chief Whip 1970 – 1976	Succeeded by Cyril Smith
Preceded by Jo Grimond	Leader of the Liberal Party 1976 – 1988	Party merged with SDP
New political party	Leader of the Social and Liberal Democrats 1988 with Robert Maclennan	Succeeded by Paddy Ashdown
Scottish Parliament
New creation	Member of the Scottish Parliament for Lothians 1999 – 2003	Succeeded by Mark Ballard
	Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament 1999 – 2003	Succeeded by George Reid
Academic offices
Preceded by Anthony Ross	Rector of the University of Edinburgh 1982 – 1985	Succeeded by Archie Macpherson

v • d • e Leaders of the Liberal Party House of Lords (1859–1916) The Earl Granville · The Earl Russell · The Earl Granville · The Earl of Kimberley · The Earl of Rosebery · The Earl of Kimberley · The Marquess of Ripon · The Marquess of Crewe House of Commons (1859–1916) The Viscount Palmerston · William Ewart Gladstone · The Marquess of Hartington · William Ewart Gladstone · Sir William Harcourt · Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman · H.H. Asquith Overall Leader (1916–1988) The Earl of Oxford & Asquith · Sir Donald Maclean (Acting Leader) · David Lloyd George · Sir Herbert Samuel · Sir Archibald Sinclair · Clement Davies · Jo Grimond · Jeremy Thorpe · Jo Grimond · David Steel In 1988, the Party merged with the Social Democratic Party to form the Liberal Democrats. For their leaders, click here.

v • d • e Leaders of the Liberal Democrats David Steel · Robert Maclennan · Paddy Ashdown · Charles Kennedy · Menzies Campbell · Nick Clegg In 1988, the Liberal Party merged with the Social Democratic Party to form the Liberal Democrats. For their leaders, click here.

v • d • e Liberal Democrats Leadership Leaders David Steel (Liberal) · Robert Maclennan (SDP) · Paddy Ashdown · Charles Kennedy · Sir Menzies Campbell · Nick Clegg Deputy Leaders Russell Johnston · Alan Beith · Sir Menzies Campbell · Vince Cable Leaders in the Lords Seear (Liberal) · Diamond (SDP) · Jenkins · Rogers · Williams · McNally Leadership elections Leadership 1988 (Ashdown) · 1999 (Kennedy) · 2006 (Campbell) · 2007 (Clegg) Deputy Leadership 2003 (Campbell) · 2006 (Cable) MPs and Frontbench Current Members of Parliament · Frontbench Team Related organisations Alliance Party of Northern Ireland · Beveridge Group · Cambridge University · Christian Forum · DELGA · Friends of Israel · Friends of Turkey · History Group · IR Cymru (Liberal Youth Wales) · Liberal International British Group · Liberal Youth · Liberal Youth Scotland · Oxford University · Scottish Liberal Democrats · Welsh Liberal Democrats History and related topics Glee Club (British politics) · The Land (song) · Lib-Lab pact · Liberal Party · Liberator (magazine) · List of MPs (past and present) · National Liberal Club · Orange Book · Peelites · SDP-Liberal Alliance · Social Democratic Party · Whig Party

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