Bruce Millan

Bruce Millan HonFRSE (5 October 1927 – 21 February 2013) was a British Labour politician who served as a European Commissioner from 1989 to 1995.

He was born in Dundee and educated at the Harris Academy in that city.

Millan unsuccessfully contested West Renfrewshire in 1951 and Glasgow Craigton in the 1955 general election.

He was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow Craigton at the 1959 general election and served for that seat, and after its abolition in 1983 for Glasgow Govan, until 1988. He served in the Wilson government of 1964–1970 as Under-Secretary of State for the Air Force from 1964 to 1966, as Under-Secretary of State for Scotland from 1966 to 1970, and in the Callaghan government of 1976–1979 as Secretary of State for Scotland; he subsequently served as Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland under new leader Michael Foot.

In 1988 he left Parliament, by applying for the Chiltern Hundreds, to take up the post of European Commissioner for Regional Policy and Cohesion which he held until 1995. The vacancy he left was filled by Jim Sillars of the Scottish National Party (SNP) in the notable Glasgow Govan by-election of 1988.

Millan received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1991.

In 1999–2001 he chaired the Millan Committee which proposed reforms to the provision of Mental Health care in Scotland.