Member of Parliament
A member of the Labour Party, Dewar worked as a solicitor in Glasgow, but soon tried to get elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. He unsuccessfully contested the marginal seat of Aberdeen South in the 1964 general election, and won it in the landslide Labour victory at the 1966 general election at the age of 28, defeating Priscilla Tweedsmuir by 1,799 votes.
In his maiden speech in the House of Commons Dewar railed against proposed increase on potato tax. This was his first notable success - the tax was repealed in 1967. That year he was made Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Education Secretary Anthony Crosland, with whom Dewar later confessed to never really establishing a rapport, saying Crosland was a "very odd man". He held that position until 1969. That year, Dewar opposed a visit to Aberdeen by the Springbok rugby side, staging a silent vigil near the ground. In April 1968 he was proposed for a Minister of State position by Roy Jenkins but nothing came of it. Dewar lost his seat to Iain Sproat at the Conservative victory at the 1970 general election by just over 1,000 votes.
Read more about this topic: Donald Dewar
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