18 Facts About Jimmy Hood

James Hood was a Scottish Labour Party politician, who served as a Member of Parliament from 1987 until being defeated in 2015.

Jimmy Hood represented the Clydesdale constituency until 2005, and the Lanark and Hamilton East constituency thereafter.

James Jimmy Hood was born in Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire and was educated at the Lesmahagow Higher Grade School in Lesmahagow, Coatbridge College, Motherwell Technical College and the University of Nottingham.

Jimmy Hood worked with the National Coal Board for 23 years, as a mining engineer from 1964, the year he joined the NUM until 1987.

Jimmy Hood started his career with the NCB in the Lanarkshire Coalfield, at Auchlochan Colliery, moving to Nottinghamshire on the closure of the coalfield in the summer of 1968 and became a NUM trade union official in 1973.

Jimmy Hood was elected to the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Clydesdale at the 1987 general election, following the retirement of the sitting Labour MP Judith Hart.

Jimmy Hood then stood for the newly created seat and was elected as MP for Lanark and Hamilton East.

Jimmy Hood represented the seat until his defeat at the 2015 general election to the Scottish National Party candidate, Angela Crawley.

Jimmy Hood voted against the first Gulf War, and was one of many Labour rebels that voted against the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Jimmy Hood was member of the Liaison Committee from 1992 to 2006 and on the Defence Select Committee between 1997 and 2001.

Jimmy Hood was a Member of the Speaker's panel of Chairmen from 1997.

In November 2008, Jimmy Hood was one of 18 MPs who signed a Commons motion backing a Team GB football team at the 2012 Olympic Games, saying football "should not be any different from other competing sports and our young talent should be allowed to show their skills on the world stage".

In October 2014, Jimmy Hood invoked parliamentary privilege to link former Home Secretary Leon Brittan to accusations of improper conduct with children.

Jimmy Hood added that "I am just repeating what I read in the papers".

On 7 May 2015, Jimmy Hood was unseated by the Scottish National Party candidate Angela Crawley, a South Lanarkshire Council councillor.

Jimmy Hood said his second London home was necessary because of the distance of Westminster from Lanarkshire, and he accepted it would not be possible to make claims of that size in future without receipts and he "fully supported" putting details of expenses online.

Jimmy Hood married Marion McCleary in 1967; the couple had a son and a daughter and five grandchildren.

Jimmy Hood died of a second heart attack on 3 December 2017, aged 69.