George Robertson, Baron Robertson of Port Ellen

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Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". George Islay MacNeill Robertson, Baron Robertson of Port Ellen (born 12 April 1946) is a British politician who served as the 10th Secretary General of NATO from 1999 to 2003. A member of the Labour Party, he previously served as Secretary of State for Defence from 1997 to 1999 and Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland from 1993 to 1997. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Hamilton South (formerly Hamilton) from 1978 to 1999 and was appointed to the House of Lords as a life peer in 2000.

Early life

Born in Port Ellen, Isle of Islay, Scotland, the son of George Philip Robertson (1916–2002), a policeman, and Marion Isabella Robertson née MacNeill (1913–1996). His mother taught French and German.[1] His maternal grandfather Malcolm McNeill was the police sergeant at Bowmore during World War One, and wrote about the kindness of local people in shipwreck tragedies of SS Tuscania and HMS Otranto.[2] Robertson was educated at Dunoon Grammar School and studied economics at Queen's College, Dundee. When he was 15 years of age, he was involved with protests against US nuclear submarines docking in Scotland.[3]

During Robertson's time at Queen's College it broke away from the University of St Andrews to become the University of Dundee, of which Robertson was one of the first graduates (MA, 1968), and one of a minority of graduates that year who opted to take a Dundee, rather than a St Andrews, degree.[4][5] During his time at University he played a full part in student life. He wrote a column for the student newspaper Annasach, launched in 1967, and took an active role in student protests.[4][6][7] Robertson used his newspaper column to back the new University and encouraged his fellow students to take a University of Dundee degree (students who had started before 1967 could opt to take a degree from either the University of Dundee or the University of St Andrews).[7] Robertson is now the Chancellor of the University of Dundee.

In 1968, Robertson was one of a number of Dundee students to invade the pitch during a rugby match at St Andrews involving a team from the Orange Free State to protest against apartheid.[8] The same year he organised a 24-hour work-in by students in the university library in opposition to proposed cuts by the government in student grants.[8]

Personal life

Robertson married Sandra Wallace on 1 June 1970. They have two sons and a daughter.[9] Robertson supports Hamilton Academical football club.[10]

Traffic collision

Robertson survived a serious car crash on 19 January 1976[11][12] when a Navy Land Rover, which was carrying Template:Convert of gelignite and a box of detonators, hit his car head-on in the Drumochter Pass, one mile south of Dalwhinnie leaving him with two injured knees and a broken jaw. In May 1976 the driver of the Land Rover was found guilty of careless driving.[11] Robertson was wearing a seat belt at the time and attributed his survival to this.[13]

Political career

Robertson entered the House of Commons as a Labour MP in 1978, having won the Hamilton by-election in May of that year, caused by the death of the incumbent Labour MP Alex Wilson that March. Margo MacDonald of the SNP came second. Robertson retained the constituency with an increased majority and obtained 51% of the overall vote. He was re-elected to Parliament at five subsequent general elections, was Chairman of the Labour Party in Scotland, and was appointed to the Privy Council.[14]

File:Defense.gov News Photo 980603-D-9880W-177.jpg
Robertson with U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen at the Pentagon on 3 June 1998

After Labour won the 1997 general election, Robertson was appointed Secretary of State for Defence. He initiated the Strategic Defence Review,[15] which was completed in 1998, presenting a coherent political and strategic narrative themed as 'a force for good'. The review created the Joint Rapid Reaction Force and inaugurated the ambitious project to build two new large aircraft carriers for force projection, the Queen Elizabeth-class, and its new warplanes, symbolising the new government's commitment to defence. However the new Labour government had come to power promising to follow the previous Conservative government's spending plans for its first two years, and this required a defence budget cut of £2 billion. Though the defence budget was subsequently expanded, it was not sufficient for the increased ambitions of the review. Tom Bower, in his book on that government, argued that "Robertson had created an unaffordable dream in 1998."[16][17]

File:Defense.gov News Photo 010308-D-2987S-080.jpg
Robertson with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon on 8 March 2001

In 1999, Robertson was appointed Secretary General of NATO after the German defence minister Rudolf Scharping declined to the position, and doubts were raised about the suitability of the British politician and former Royal Marine Paddy Ashdown (at that time the outgoing leader of the Liberal Democrats) due to his never having held a position in government.[18][19][20]

File:Vladimir Putin 28 May 2002-17.jpg
Robertson, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and Russian president Vladimir Putin at the Russia-NATO Summit at Pratica di Mare Air Base in Italy on 28 May 2002
File:President George W. Bush congratulates NATO Secretary General Lord George Robertson.jpg
Robertson with U.S. president George W. Bush on 12 November 2003

Robertson was the Secretary General of NATO at the time of the United States invasion of Afghanistan.[21] In October 2001, NATO invoked Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty for the first time in its history.[22]

In December 2002, before the US-led invasion of Iraq, Robertson declared that NATO had a "moral obligation" to support the United States if it attacked Iraq.[23]

In September 2022, during the 7th month of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, interviewed by Channel 4 about his nine meetings with Vladimir Putin, Robertson said, "At the first meeting (in Moscow, Oct 2001) Vladimir Putin clearly said, 'I WANT RUSSIA TO BE PART OF WESTERN EUROPE...at the 2nd meeting (in Brussels) he said..'WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO INVITE RUSSIA TO JOIN NATO?'...I started to sort of reach out and engage them in so many activities that they basically couldn't fight with us.. but after I left NATO (in Dec 2003), the American administration, the Bush administration (during their own illegal war on Iraq opposed by Putin), lost any interest basically in doing business with Russia, they saw it as a threat..they didn't really want to make it part of the overall partnership. I think we missed an opportunity at that time because I think it's what he (Putin) wanted, and we could have grabbed hold of him!" [24][25][26]

Quote on devolution

In 1995, Robertson, while he was Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland said, "Devolution will kill Nationalism stone dead".[27] This quote was designed to assuage hopes that devolution would provide a greater platform for the Scottish National Party (SNP). Robertson's quote is frequently recalled, usually in a mocking fashion, since the SNP won Scottish Parliament elections in 2007,[27][28] 2011,[29][30] 2016 and 2021.

Dunblane libel action

Robertson's three children are former pupils of the school in Dunblane where gunman Thomas Hamilton murdered 16 children and their teacher in 1996. After the massacre, Robertson, a long-time resident of the town, acted as a spokesman for the victims' families. He was also a key figure in the subsequent campaign that led to the ban on handguns in Great Britain.[31]

In 2003, the Sunday Herald newspaper ran an article entitled "Should the Dunblane dossier be kept secret?", a reference to documents relating to the Cullen Inquiry into the massacre which are to remain classified for 100 years. In a discussion board on the newspaper's website, anonymous contributors claimed that Robertson had signed a recommendation for a gun licence for Thomas Hamilton in his capacity as Hamilton's MP. However, Robertson had never been the gunman's MP, and the claims were unfounded. Robertson sued the Sunday Herald and the paper settled by paying him a five-figure sum plus costs. A subsequent action by Robertson, related to the terms of the newspaper's apology, was unsuccessful. The first case became an important test case as to whether publishers can be held responsible for comments posted on their websites.[32][33]

Independence referendum interventions

Robertson opposed Scottish independence in the 2014 referendum. In an article in The Washington Post, he wrote: "The residual United Kingdom would still be a major player in the world, but upon losing a third of its land mass, 5 million of its population and a huge amount of credibility, its global standing would inevitably diminish."[34]

He said in a speech to the Brookings Institution on 8 April 2014: "The loudest cheers for the break-up of Britain would be from our adversaries and from our enemies. For the second military power in the west to shatter this year would be cataclysmic in geo-political terms."[35] Robertson also likened the efforts of Unionists to keep Scotland tied to the UK with those of Abraham Lincoln's fight against slavery when he stated, "they might look more relevantly at the Civil War where hundreds of thousands of Americans perished in a war to keep the new Union together. To Lincoln and his compatriots the Union was so precious, so important, and its integrity so valuable that rivers of blood would be spilt to keep it together."[36]

After NATO

Robertson has received numerous honours (including a total of 12 Honorary doctorates from various universities).

In addition, he is a Senior Counsellor at The Cohen Group, a consulting firm in Washington D.C. that provides advice and assistance in marketing and regulatory affairs.

In August 2021, he criticised the withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan, saying that "We never really took Afghanistan and the conflict there with the seriousness that it demanded."[21]

On 16 July 2024, the newly elected Labour government of Keir Starmer announced the commencement of a defence review, to be led by Robertson.[37]

Career

Other former or present posts

Honours and awards

Orders
Foreign Honours
Organisation
Appointments

Appointments

Personal
Fellowships
Academic

Honorary military appointments

Appointments

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References

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External links

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Template:S-dipTemplate:S-acaTemplate:S-prec
Template:Error
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Member of Parliament
for Hamilton
1978–1997 Template:S-ttl/check 		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament
for Hamilton South
1997–1999 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland
1993–1997 Template:S-ttl/check

Template:S-vac

Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Secretary of State for Defence
1997–1999 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Secretary General of NATO
1999–2004 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/checkTemplate:Succession box/check Chancellor of the University of Dundee
2023–present Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Gentlemen
Baron Robertson of Port Ellen Template:S-ttl/check

Template:S-fol Template:S-end

Template:NATOSecGens Template:Secretary of State for Defence Template:Members of the Order of the Thistle Template:Authority control

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  11. ↑ a b Aberdeen Press and Journal – 19 May 1976
  12. ↑ Aberdeen Press and Journal – 20 January 1976
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