Quick Facts
Biography
Charles Peter Kennedy, PC (25 November 1959 – 1 June 2015) was a Scottish Liberal Democrat politician, who was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1999 to 2006 and a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1983 to 2015, latterly for the Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency.
Kennedy was a member of three political parties. At the age of fifteen, he joined the Labour Party, followed in 1981 by the newly formed SDP (Social Democratic Party), and in 1988, the Liberal Democrats, when the SDP merged with the Liberal Party.
At the 1983 general election, Kennedy was elected for the SDP at the age of 23. He quickly emerged as a potential party leader, and in 1991, after the SDP and Liberal Party had formally merged, he became President of the Liberal Democrats, a position he held for the next four years.
In 1999, after the resignation of Paddy Ashdown, Kennedy was elected leader, at the age of 39. He led the party through two general elections increasing their seats in the House of Commons to their highest level since 1923, and led his party's opposition to the Iraq War. A charismatic and affable speaker in public, he appeared extensively on television while leader.
During the latter stages of Kennedy's leadership, there was concern about both his leadership and his health. From December 2005 some within the party were openly questioning his position and calling for a leadership election. On 5 January 2006 he was informed that ITN would be reporting that he had received treatment for a drinking problem and pre-empted the broadcast by admitting that he had had treatment and called a leadership election in which he intended to stand. This admission damaged his standing and 25 MPs signed a statement urging him to resign immediately, which he did on 7 January; he was replaced by Menzies Campbell.
After resigning as party leader Kennedy remained in office as a backbench MP. After the 2010 general election he voted against Nick Clegg's decision to form a coalition with the Conservative Party. On constitutional reform he was a long-term supporter of full home rule for Scotland within a federal United Kingdom within a federal Europe. He lost his seat at the 2015 general election, and died less than a month later from a haemorrhage linked to his alcoholism.
Early life
Kennedy was born in Inverness, the son of Mary and Ian. He was raised as a Roman Catholic, and was educated at Lochaber High School in Fort William. He went on to study for a Master of Arts degree in Politics and Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. At university he became politically active, joining the SDP, as well as the Dialectic Society. In 1982 he won the Observer Mace debating competition, speaking with Clark McGinn.
Upon graduation in 1982 Kennedy went to work for BBC Scotland as a journalist. He later received a Fulbright Fellowship which allowed him to carry out research at Indiana University in the United States.
Early political career
While studying in America, Kennedy received the SDP nomination to stand for the Scottish seat of Ross, Cromarty and Skye in the 1983 general election, then held by the Conservative Hamish Gray. In a shock result, he won the seat becoming the youngest sitting Member of Parliament, aged 23. He served on the Social Services select committee from 1985–87, retained his seat at the 1987 general election and served on the Televising of Proceedings of the House select committee from 1987–89.
He was the first of the five SDP MPs to support the merger with the Liberal Party, with whom they were co-operating in the SDP–Liberal Alliance, because of pressure from Liberal activists in his constituency. In 1988 they merged to form the Social and Liberal Democratic Party, later renamed the Liberal Democrats.
He moved into frontbench politics in 1989 becoming the party's spokesperson for Health. After retaining his seat in the 1992 general election he served as the spokesperson for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs during the 1992–97 parliament. He retained his seat in the 1997 general election and served on the Standards and Privileges select committee from 1997 to 1999.
He was Liberal Democrat Party President from 1990 to 1994 and Liberal Democrat spokesperson for the office of the Leader of the House of Commons from 1997 to 1999.
Leader of the Liberal Democrats
On 9 August 1999 Kennedy was elected leader of the Liberal Democrats after the retirement of Paddy Ashdown. He won 57% of the transferred vote under the Alternative Vote system beating the runner-up Simon Hughes (43% of the vote), Malcolm Bruce, Jackie Ballard and David Rendel.
He was sworn in as a Member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 1999.
Kennedy's style of leadership differed from Ashdown's, being regarded as more conversational and relaxed. He was labelled "Chatshow Charlie" by some observers as a result of his appearances on the satirical panel game Have I Got News for You.
2001 General Election
In his first major campaign, the 2001 general election, Kennedy, along with his "election guru" Lord Rennard, targeted the Liberal Democrats' campaign on a limited number of seats in such a way as to turn a lower level of national support into a greater number of Parliamentary seats. They won 52 seats with a 18.3% share of the vote. This was a 1.5% improvement in vote share (and an improvement of six seats) over the 1997 election but smaller than the 25.4% vote share the SDP/Liberal Alliance had achieved in 1983 which won them 23 seats.
Opposition to the war in Iraq
Kennedy led his party's opposition to the Iraq War, with all Liberal Democrats voting against or abstaining in the vote for the invasion of Iraq – the largest British party to do so.
Health concerns
In July 2002 Jeremy Paxman publicly apologized after asking Kennedy about his drinking in a television interview. Reports emerged of Kennedy's ill-health in 2003 at the time of crucial debates on the Iraq War and after the 2004 Budget along with linked rumours of a drinking problem which were strenuously denied at the time by both Kennedy and his party. The Times published an apology over a report it had made stating Kennedy had not taken part in that year's Budget debate because of excessive drinking.
In April 2005, the launch of his party's manifesto for the 2005 General Election was delayed because of the birth of his first child, with Menzies Campbell taking temporary charge as acting leader and covering Kennedy's campaign duties. At the manifesto launch, on his first day back on the campaign trail after the birth, Kennedy struggled to remember the details of a key policy (replacing the Council tax with a local income tax) at an early morning press conference, which he later blamed on a lack of sleep due to his new child.
2005 General Election
In his last general election as leader, in May 2005, he extended his strategy from the 2001 election targeting the seats held by the most senior and/or highly regarded Conservative MPs, dubbed a "decapitation" strategy. The expectation was that without these "key" figures, the Conservatives would be discredited as the official opposition allowing Kennedy and the Liberal Democrats to claim that they were the "effective opposition". At the same time they also hoped to capture marginal Labour seats attracting (particularly Muslim) Labour voters who were dissatisfied because of the invasion of Iraq which Kennedy's party had opposed. They had succeeded with this tactic in by-elections, taking Brent East and Leicester South from Labour.
Just before the election, it had been anticipated by the media and opinion polls that the Liberal Democrats could win up to 100 seats and place them close to the Conservatives in terms of seats as well as votes. They won 62 seats (22.1% of the vote), their greatest number of seats since 1923 but significantly less than most observers had expected the party to win.
They made a net loss of seats to the Conservatives, only managing to win three seats from them (Solihull, Taunton and Westmorland and Lonsdale) with their biggest "scalp" being that of the Shadow Education Secretary Tim Collins. They failed to unseat leading Conservatives such as the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Oliver Letwin, Shadow Home Secretary David Davis, Shadow Secretary of State for the Family Theresa May and the Leader of the Opposition Michael Howard. The "decapitation" strategy was widely seen to have failed.
They won significant numbers of seats from Labour, winning particularly in student areas such as Bristol, Cardiff and Manchester, but did not see the breakthrough in areas with large Asian populations that some had expected, and even lost Leicester South. They succeeded in regaining the seat of Ceredigion, their first gain from the Welsh party Plaid Cymru.
Kennedy heralded the Liberal Democrats, who now had a total of 62 seats, as the "national party of the future", but in the wake of the general election, Kennedy's leadership came under increased criticism from those who felt that the Liberal Democrats could have surged forward with the official opposition Conservative Party having been relatively weak. Many pointed the finger of blame at Kennedy for failing to widen the party's appeal. Others, like the former Deputy Chairman of the Federal Liberal Democrat Party, Donnachadh McCarthy, resigned, citing the party's shift to the right of the political spectrum under Kennedy in pursuit of Conservative votes.
Leadership concerns
After the election of David Cameron as Leader of the Conservative Party in December 2005, it was widely reported that senior members of the Liberal Democrats had told Kennedy that he must either "raise his game" or resign. On 13 December 2005 the BBC's political editor, Nick Robinson, claimed that there were briefings against the leader, with members of his party unhappy at what they saw as 'lack of leadership' from Kennedy.
In late 2005 speculation surrounding the leadership of the Liberal Democrats was widespread, with the journalist Andrew Neil claiming to speak "on good authority" that Kennedy would announce his resignation at the 2006 spring conference of the Liberal Democrats. Kennedy's spokeswoman denied the report and complained against the BBC, which had broadcast it.
A "Kennedy Must Go" petition was started by The Liberal magazine (a publication with no affiliation to the Liberal Democrats) and allegedly had been signed by over 3,300 party members including 386 local councillors and two MPs by the end of 2005. A round-robin letter signed by Liberal Democrat MPs rejecting his leadership received 23 signatures.
Resignation
On 6 January 2006 Kennedy was informed that ITN would be reporting that he had received treatment for a drinking problem. He decided to pre-empt the broadcast, called a sudden news conference, and made a personal statement that over the past eighteen months he had been coming to terms with a drinking problem, but had sought professional help. He told reporters that recent questions among his colleagues about his suitability as leader were partly as a result of the drinking problem but stated that he had been dry for the past two months and would be calling a leadership contest, in which he would stand, to resolve the issues surrounding his authority once and for all. It was later claimed that the source for ITN's story was his former press secretary turned ITV News correspondent, Daisy McAndrew.
The admission of a drinking problem seriously damaged his standing and 25 MPs signed a statement urging him to resign immediately. It was later claimed in a biography of Kennedy by the journalist Greg Hurst that senior Liberal Democrats had known about Kennedy's drinking problem when he was elected as leader in 1999 and had subsequently kept it hidden from the public.
On 7 January 2006, Kennedy called another press conference, at which he announced that while he was buoyed by the supportive messages he had received from grass root members, he felt that he could not continue as leader because of the lack of confidence from the Parliamentary party. He said he would not be a candidate in the leadership election and was standing down as leader "with immediate effect", with Menzies Campbell to act as interim leader until a new leader was elected.
He also confirmed in his resignation statement that he did not expect to remain on the Liberal Democrat Frontbench Team. He pledged his loyalty to a new leader as a backbencher, and said he wished to remain active in the party and in politics. Campbell went on to win the resulting leadership election, and Kennedy subsequently gave his successor full public support. His leadership had lasted slightly less than six years and five months.
Post leadership political career
Backbencher
After resigning as party leader, Kennedy remained in office as a backbench MP. His first major political activity was to campaign in the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election, which the Liberal Democrats went on to win, taking the seat from Labour.
On 22 June 2006 Kennedy made his first appearance in the national media after stepping down as party leader when he appeared on the BBC's Question Time. One of the questions on the show was about his possible return as leader, which he declined to rule out.
On 4 August 2006 Kennedy hosted a documentary on Channel 4 about what he saw as the increasing disenchantment felt by voters towards the main parties in British politics because of their hesitation to discuss the big issues, especially at election time, and the ruthless targeting of swing-voters in key constituencies at the expense of the majority. He also contributed an article covering the same issues to The Guardian's Comment Is Free section.
After Campbell resigned as Liberal Democrat leader on 15 October 2007, Kennedy said that it was "highly unlikely" that he would try to return as party leader, but he did not rule it out completely.
Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition
At the 2010 General Election, Kennedy was re-elected to parliament with a majority of 13,070.
Kennedy voted against the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition in May 2010 explaining in an article for The Observer that he "did not subscribe to the view that remaining in opposition ourselves, while extending responsible 'Confidence and supply' requirements to a minority Conservative administration, was tantamount to a 'do nothing' response". Finally, Kennedy warned of the risks of "a subsequent assimilation within the Conservative fold", adding: "David Cameron has been here often before: from the early days of his leadership he was happy to describe himself as a 'liberal Conservative'. And we know he dislikes the term Tory. These ongoing efforts at appropriation are going to have to be watched".
The media reported on 21 August 2010 that Kennedy was about to defect from the Liberal Democrats to Labour in protest against his party's role in the coalition government's public spending cuts, but the Liberal Democrats were swift to deny these reports. Kennedy himself denied the rumours in an interview with The Mail on Sunday.
Scottish independence referendum
Kennedy played a role in the cross-party Better Together campaign, which was the pro-union campaign for the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. In March 2014, the Sunday Post reported that Kennedy had criticised Labour's strategy in the referendum campaign and said that Better Together needed to consider its legacy.
2015 General Election
Kennedy lost his seat in the 2015 General Election amid UK-wide seat losses for the Liberal Democrats and a surge in support for the Scottish National Party. During the campaign and immediately after the election, Kennedy was the target of a campaign of on-line abuse by "Cybernats", including an SNP constituency official who subsequently resigned.
Rector of University of Glasgow
In February 2008 Kennedy was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow and was officially installed, succeeding Mordechai Vanunu, on 10 April 2008. He won the election with a 46% share of vote, supported by not only his own Glasgow University Union but also the Queen Margaret Union and Glasgow University Sports Association. He was re-elected in February 2011 defeating one other candidate, the writer A. L. Kennedy, by a clear margin. He served six years as rector until Edward Snowden was elected in February 2014.
Death
Kennedy died on 1 June 2015 at his home in Fort William at the age of 55; his father had died just six weeks earlier. Kennedy's death was announced in the early hours of the following day. The police described his death as "sudden and non-suspicious". Following a post-mortem his family announced that Kennedy had died of a major haemorrhage linked to his alcoholism.
A funeral mass was held on 12 June at his parish church, St John's Roman Catholic Church, in Caol near Fort William, and his body was buried at his family's cemetery at Clunes. A service of thanksgiving was held at the University of Glasgow on 18 June and it was announced that the university would be fund-raising to name a teaching area in memory of him. A memorial service was held in St George's Cathedral, Southwark, London, on 3 November.
Personal life
In July 2002 Kennedy married Sarah Gurling, the sister of his friend James Gurling. They had a son, Donald, who was born in 2005. On 9 August 2010 it was announced that he and his wife were to separate, and their divorce was granted on 9 December 2010.
In July 2007 Kennedy was informally spoken to by the British Transport Police after he breached the English smoking ban on a train a few days after it came into force.
Kennedy's father Ian, to whom he was close, died in April 2015. He had been a brewery worker but a lifelong teetotaller. Kennedy had chosen a recording of his father's fiddle playing when he appeared on Desert Island Discs.