Tom Fraser

Thomas "Tom" Fraser PC (born February 18, 1911 , † November 21, 1988 ) was a British Labor Party politician who was a member of the House of Commons between 1943 and 1967 and from 1964 to 1965 the office of Minister of Transport.

Life

After the death of Duncan Macgregor Graham in a by -election on January 29, 1943, Fraser was elected to the House of Commons as a candidate for the Labor Party for the first time and represented the constituency of Hamilton until September 30, 1967 . In 1944 he acted briefly as the private parliamentary secretary of a minister.

After the Labor Party's victory in the general election on July 5, 1945 , Fraser was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland by Prime Minister Clement Attlee and held that office until the end of Attlee's term on October 26 1951. Together with the other Parliamentary Undersecretary of State George Buchanan or from 1947 John Robertson and from 1950 Peggy Herbison , he was one of the closest collaborators of the then Scotland Minister Joseph Westwood , Arthur Woodburn and most recently Hector McNeil .

Prime Minister Harold Wilson appointed Fraser after the victory of the Labor Party in the general election on October 15, 1965 Transport Minister (Minister of Transport) in the Cabinet. In this ministerial office he remained until a cabinet reshuffle on December 23, 1965 and was then replaced by Barbara Castle . In his tenure as Minister of Transport drastic rationalization measures were the railway companies British Railways , after the then CEO of the company Richard Beeching also Beeching cuts were mentioned. In addition, a speed limit of 70 mph on motorways in the United Kingdom was introduced in late 1965 . His closest associates as Secretary of Transportation included Parliamentary Secretary for the Department of Transportation, George Lindgren, and his Private Parliamentary Secretary, Reg Freeson .

On September 30, 1967, Fraser finally resigned his mandate to become chairman of the board of the power company NoSHEB ( North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board ) . In the by-election in the constituency of Hamilton on November 2, 1967, which became necessary as a result, Winnie Ewing was elected by the Scottish National Party (SNP) as his successor as a member of the House of Commons. After Robert McIntyre, she was only the second SNP politician to succeed in gaining a direct mandate in the House of Commons.

Web links

• Tom Fraser at Hansard (English)