Fierce anti-war critic, Robin Cook dies at 59 |
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Mon, 08 Aug 2005 06:05
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LONDON - Former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who had resigned from the Blair government in disgust over the Iraq war, died yesterday when he was hiking on a Scottish mountain. Cook was 59.
Officials said that Mr. Cook collapsed when he was walking with his wife on Ben Stack Mountain in the Scottish Highlands.
A Coastguard helicopter then took Mr. Cook to a hospital in Inverness where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The 59-year-old MP had been given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for 30 minutes, but to no avail. Robin Cook was best known for his principled stand on the Iraq war, which finally led to his resignation in March 2003. In a letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr. Cook had written, "In principle I believe it is wrong to embark on military action without broad international support. In practice, I believe it is against Britain's interest to create a precedent for unilateral military action."
He however had continued to support his party and campaigned extensively for the Labour in the May general elections. But once he was convinced that the election was within the party's grasp, he called for the resignation of Tony Blair in favor of the Chancellor Gordon Brown. Mr. Cook is also better known for a public scandal that caused him to separate from his first wife, Margaret, a medical consultant. Paying tribute to him his former wife said that he was a "heavyweight and an exemplary father. I don't think he handled power well because of the necessary conflicts and deviations with his own essential personality and ethical style." His second wife Gaynor and his two sons, Christopher and Peter, survive Mr. Cook.
Mr. Cook's death has come as a shock to the political community at large and tributes have been flowing hailing him as a courageous man. Prime Minister Tony Blair said, "Robin was an outstanding, extraordinary talent - brilliant, incisive in debate, of incredible skill and persuasive power." Gordon Brown, the Chancellor extended his condolences to Mr. Cook's family and said, "With his death so sudden and unexpected, the tragic loss to his family, his constituency, our party and our country is all the greater and is most keenly felt by all of us who knew him and will now miss him greatly."
Robin Cook first entered the Parliament in 1974 as a MP for Edinburgh Central.
He went on to become the shadow health secretary in 1989 and the shadow trade and industry secretary in 1992. He was appointed as the shadow foreign secretary in 1994 and went on to enter the Cabinet as foreign secretary after Labour's landslide win in 1997. He became the Leader of the Commons in 2001, a position he held before resigning over the Iraq war.
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