Jimmy Hood obituary

Jimmy Hood, who has died aged 69 after suffering from a long-term heart condition, was an ebullient and effective Labour MP from a radical mining background who developed a parliamentary specialism in the scrutiny of European Union legislation. The defining experience of his political life was as leader of the striking Nottinghamshire miners during the bitter conflict of 1984-85. He was, above all, loyal to his union but was ousted as NUM lodge secretary at Ollerton pit, where the majority of miners continued to work.

Nottinghamshire was the stronghold of the Union of Democratic Mineworkers, founded to oppose the strike. This led to particularly deep and lasting divisions within the county’s mining communities. In his maiden speech to the House of Commons in 1987, Hood paid tribute to “the gallant striking miners of Nottinghamshire” and called for the reinstatement of victimised miners. By then he had become the MP for Clydesdale in his native Lanarkshire.

Although he had been living for more than 20 years in Nottinghamshire, his role in the miners’ strike brought credibility to his bid to succeed Dame Judith Hart as Labour MP in Clydesdale. At the selection conference Hood prevailed by one vote over Eric Milligan, a prominent Edinburgh councillor who went on to become lord provost of the city.

This sent him on a parliamentary career that lasted for 28 years. Hood recalled in his maiden speech how he and his family had been turned into “industrial Gypsies” by the Lanarkshire mine closures of the 1960s, forcing him to “uproot my wife and young son and to seek employment in the coal mines of Nottinghamshire”. He likened his return to “the salmon coming back home from the sea to fresh water”.

He had started his career as a mining engineer at the Auchlochan colliery in Lanarkshire, and in his adopted home of Nottinghamshire was deeply involved in the Labour party as well as the NUM, becoming a trade union representative in 1973. He also served as a member of Ollerton parish council from that year and was elected to Newark and Sherwood district council in 1977, a grounding in practical, local politics that was to stand him in good stead when he arrived at Westminster.

Initially in parliament he was a member of the leftwing Campaign group, but he had a strong independent streak that encouraged him to seek out his own niche. Soon after his election he served on the select committee on European legislation (later to become the European scrutiny committee), which considered the minutiae of European measures being translated into UK law. In 1992, when a new chair of the committee was required, Hood was nominated by his Labour colleagues but also won support from Tory MPs who did not want the role to fall into the hands of an anti-EU member. He went on to chair the committee with great aplomb and thoroughness for the next 14 years.

Hood was a highly regarded constituency MP, at ease among his own people. He was born in Lesmahagow, which fell within the Clydesdale constituency, the son of William, a former miner, and his millworker wife, Bridie. He went to Lesmahagow high school and Motherwell Technical College, where he studied mining engineering, and after moving south he continued his studies part-time at Nottingham University through the Workers’ Educational Association.

In 1998 Hood suffered a massive heart attack, but he remained active in politics, both locally and nationally, and held his seat (by now Lanark and Hamilton East) until 2015, when his 13,478 majority was swept away on the incoming SNP tide. He was strongly against Scottish independence, declaring that he would oppose it in the interests of working-class unity even if it made sense economically.

He was founder-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on ME, and chaired at various times the Scottish Labour Group of MPs, the party’s home affairs committee and the miners’ parliamentary group. More informally, he was known for his wise and kind counsel to younger colleagues at Westminster.

In 2013 Hood was invited back to speak at a church service in Ollerton for the rededication of the NUM banner. He reflected: “In 1984, Ollerton colliery was among the top 10 most profitable pits UK-wide. Today there is a Tesco store where the pit used to be. The memory of the time is as much tragic as it is emotional.”

He is survived by his wife, Marion (nee McCleary), whom he married in 1967, and by two children, Bill and Helen.