Peter Doig (politician)

Peter Doig
MP
Member of Parliament
for Dundee West
In office
21 November 1963 – 7 April 1979
Preceded byJohn Strachey
Succeeded byErnie Ross
Personal details
Born(1911-10-27)27 October 1911
Died31 October 1996(1996-10-31) (aged 85)
NationalityBritish
Political partyLabour

Peter Muir Doig (27 October 1911 – 31 October 1996) was a British Labour Party politician.

Doig was educated at Blackness School, Dundee, before taking evening classes. He later became a sales supervisor. He joined the Labour Party in 1930. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Air Force.[1] He was elected a Dundee town councillor for ten years, serving as honorary town treasurer.

Doig contested Aberdeen South in 1959. He was Member of Parliament for Dundee West from a 1963 by-election to 1979, preceding Ernie Ross. On 22 September 1963, Doig was chosen ahead of five other people to be the Labour Party candidate in the by-election. At the time he was a bakery supervisor and chairman of the Labour group on Dundee Town Council. He was also deputy chairman of the council.[2]

In 1966 Doig was recorded as a member of the Transport and General Workers Union and the Co-operative Society. He was married with two sons.[1]

In the 1970s Doig was one of a small number of Labour MPs who supported the restoration of capital punishment, and was reported to favour a "hard line" approach towards crime. In 1979, when chairing the Scottish Standing Committee of MPs he used his casting vote to support a Conservative proposal to give police in Scotland wider powers to search for offensive weapons.[3]

  1. ^ a b Dod's Parliamentary Companion 1966. Epsom, Surrey: Business Dictionaries Ltd. 1966. p. 391.
  2. ^ "LABOUR PARTY CHOICE FOR BY-ELECTION - Dundee City Treasurer". The Herald. Glasgow. 23 September 1963. Retrieved 21 March 2016.
  3. ^ Trotter, Stuart (31 January 1979). "Casting vote storm over police powers". The Herald. Glasgow. Retrieved 25 July 2016.