Robert Hughes, Baron Hughes of Woodside

Robert Hughes, Baron Hughes of Woodside (born 3 January 1932) is a British Labour politician, who was also Chair of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) from 1976 until it was dissolved in 1995 after the ending of apartheid in South Africa.

Early life

Educated at Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen and in South Africa where he lived 1947–1954, he worked as a draughtsman.

Political career

Hughes first stood for Parliament in 1959 at North Angus and Mearns, where he came second to the Conservative incumbent Colin Thornton-Kemsley.

He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aberdeen North from 1970 to 1997. James Callaghan, on the subject of the infamous 1979 vote of no confidence that resulted from his government overturning the YES result of the Scottish devolution referendum, blamed the rebels on his own benches, rather than the SNP, for ultimately bringing about the collapse of his government and opening the door to the victory of the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher. Robert Hughes was one of those "rebels". Tam Dalyell, Peter Doig, and Adam Hunter were the other Scottish Labour MPs who helped overturn the YES vote.

On 27 September 1997 he was created a Life peer as Baron Hughes of Woodside, of Woodside in the City of Aberdeen.

He was Under-Secretary of State for Scotland from March 1974 – July 1975, but resigned in disagreement with the government's Incomes Policy.

Lord Hughes is a Vice-President of the British Humanist Association.

Anti-Apartheid Movement

Under his chairmanship the Anti-Apartheid Movement campaigned against the Thatcher government’s refusal to impose sanctions against South Africa in the 1980s and organised the 1988 ‘Free Mandela’ concert at Wembley Stadium which was televised by the BBC and broadcast around the world. Hughes attended the independence celebrations in Namibia in 1990 and acted as an observer at South Africa’s first democratic elections in April 1994. After the dissolution of the AAM he became the first Chairperson of its successor organisation, Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA).