44 Facts About Robin Cook

Robert Finlayson "Robin" Cook was a British Labour politician who served as a Member of Parliament from 1974 until his death in 2005 and served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 until 2001 when he was replaced by Jack Straw.

Robin Cook then served as Leader of the House of Commons from 2001 until 2003.

Robin Cook studied at the University of Edinburgh before being elected as the Member of Parliament for Edinburgh Central in 1974; he switched to the Livingston constituency in 1983.

Robin Cook resigned from his positions as Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons on 17 March 2003 in protest against the invasion of Iraq.

Robin Cook was born in the County Hospital, Bellshill, Scotland, the only son of Peter and Christina Cook.

Robin Cook's father was a Chemistry teacher who grew up in Fraserburgh, and his grandfather was a miner before being blacklisted for being involved in a strike.

At first, Robin Cook intended to become a Church of Scotland minister, but lost his faith as he discovered politics.

Robin Cook joined the Labour Party in 1965 and became an atheist.

Robin Cook then studied English literature at the University of Edinburgh, where he obtained an undergraduate MA with Honours in English Literature.

Robin Cook began studying for a PhD on Charles Dickens and Victorian serial novels, supervised by John Sutherland, but gave it up in 1970.

In 1971, after a period working as a secondary school teacher, Robin Cook became a tutor-organiser of the Workers' Educational Association for Lothian, and a local councillor in Edinburgh.

Robin Cook gave up both posts when he was elected as a Member of Parliament on his twenty-eighth birthday, in February 1974.

Robin Cook unsuccessfully contested the Edinburgh North constituency at the 1970 general election, but was elected to the House of Commons at the February 1974 general election as Member of Parliament for Edinburgh Central, defeating George Foulkes for nomination.

In 1981, Robin Cook was a member of the anti-nuclear Labour Party Defence Study Group.

In parliament, Robin Cook joined the left-wing Tribune Group of the Parliamentary Labour Party and frequently opposed the policies of the Wilson and Callaghan governments.

Robin Cook was an early supporter of constitutional and electoral reform and of efforts to increase the number of female MPs.

Robin Cook supported unilateral nuclear disarmament and the abandoning of the Labour Party's euroscepticism of the 1970s and 1980s.

Robin Cook became known as a brilliant parliamentary debater, and rose through the party ranks, becoming a frontbench spokesman in 1980, and reaching the Shadow Cabinet in June 1983, as spokesperson on European affairs.

Robin Cook was campaign manager for Neil Kinnock's successful 1983 bid to become leader of the Labour Party.

Robin Cook was re-elected in July 1987 and in October 1988 elected to Labour's National Executive Committee.

Robin Cook was one of the key figures in the modernisation of the Labour Party under Kinnock.

Robin Cook was Shadow Health Secretary and Shadow Trade Secretary, before taking on foreign affairs in 1994, the post he would become most identified with.

Robin Cook was believed to have coveted the job of Chancellor of the Exchequer, but that job was reportedly promised by Tony Blair to Gordon Brown.

Robin Cook announced, to much scepticism, his intention to add "an ethical dimension" to foreign policy.

Robin Cook was embarrassed when his apparent offer to mediate in the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir was rebuffed.

Robin Cook was responsible for achieving the agreement between the UK and Iran that ended the Iranian death threat against author Salman Rushdie, allowing both nations to normalize diplomatic relations.

Robin Cook is credited with having helped resolve the eight-year impasse over the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial by getting Libya to agree to hand over the two accused in 1999, for trial in the Netherlands according to Scots law.

Robin Cook spoke for the Government during the controversy surrounding the membership of Commons Select Committees which arose in 2001, where Government whips were accused of pushing aside the outspoken committee chairs Gwyneth Dunwoody and Donald Anderson.

Robin Cook was President of the Party of European Socialists from May 2001 to April 2004.

Robin Cook responded with good humour with "Yes, David Bumblebee", and Dimbleby apologised twice on air for his slip.

Robin Cook documented his time as Leader of the House of Commons in a widely acclaimed memoir The Point of Departure, which discussed in diary form his efforts to reform the House of Lords and to persuade his ministerial colleagues, including Tony Blair, to distance the Labour Government from the foreign policy of the Bush administration.

Robin Cook was sceptical of the proposals contained in the Government's Higher Education Bill, and abstained on its second reading.

Robin Cook took strong positions in favour of both the proposed European Constitution, and the reform of the House of Lords to create a majority-elected second chamber, about which he said, "I do not see how [the House of Lords] can be a democratic second Chamber if it is an election-free zone".

In October 2004 Robin Cook hosted an episode of the longrunning BBC panel show Have I Got News for You.

Chris Smith said in 2005 that in recent years Robin Cook had been setting out a vision of "libertarian, democratic socialism that was beginning to break the sometimes sterile boundaries of 'old' and 'New' Labour labels".

Some commentators and senior politicians said that Robin Cook seemed destined for a senior Cabinet post under a Brown premiership.

Shortly after he became Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook ended his relationship with Margaret, revealing that he was having an extra-marital affair with one of his staff, Gaynor Regan.

Robin Cook announced his intentions to leave his wife via a press statement made at Heathrow on 2 August 1997.

Robin Cook was forced into a decision over his private life following a telephone conversation with Alastair Campbell as he was about to go on holiday with his first wife.

Robin Cook's estranged wife subsequently accused him of having had several extramarital affairs and alleged he had a habit of drinking heavily.

Robin Cook married Regan in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on 9 April 1998, four weeks after his divorce was finalised.

Between 1991 and 1998 Robin Cook wrote a weekly tipster's column for Glasgow's Herald newspaper, a post in which he was succeeded by Alex Salmond.

Robin Cook was assisted after his fall by another hill-walker who refused all publicity and was granted anonymity.

Two days later, a post-mortem examination found that Robin Cook had died of hypertensive heart disease.