George Cunningham

George Cunningham (10 June 1931 – 27 July 2018) was a British politician who is known for introducing an amendment to the 1979 Scottish devolution referendum that resulted in the devolution act being repealed even though a majority voted in favour.

Early life Born in Dunfermline, Cunningham was educated at Dunfermline High School, Blackpool Grammar School and the University of Manchester. He worked for the Labour Party as its Commonwealth officer.

Social Democratic Party In November 1981, Cunningham resigned from the Labour Party and sat as an independent Labour MP, before becoming one of the later ex-Labour defectors to the recently founded Social Democratic Party in June 1982. Cunningham lost his seat by just 363 votes (1%) at the 1983 general election to Labour candidate Chris Smith. He contested the seat again at the 1987 general election when he lost by a similarly narrow margin (the only defecting former Labour MP who came close to regaining their seat that year) and never re-entered the House of Commons.

Personal life Cunningham married Mavis Walton in 1957 and they had two children, Andrew and Helen. Mavis, who unsuccessfully contested Twickenham for Labour in the October 1974 election, pre-deceased her husband. Cunningham died in 2018.