MICHAEL McGAHEY, a socialist and miners’ leader who changed the course of history, should be remembered by the parliament he helped win, Labour’s Richard Leonard said today.

Mr McGahey, elected president of the NUM Scottish Area in 1967, is not only fondly remembered for his work to win self-rescuing equipment for British miners and serving as vice-president of his union in the great strike of 1984-85 but for his tireless work to secure a Scottish parliament.

His speech to the STUC in 1968, rejecting bourgeois nationalism of “a classless Scotland” in favour of class solidarity yet insisting that “Scotland is a nation, not a region of Britain” is regarded as a turning point in winning Scottish trade unionism over to devolution.