Allan Stewart (politician)

(John) Allan Stewart (born June 1, 1942), is a former British Conservative politician.

Educated at Bell Baxter High School, St. Andrews University and Harvard University, where he obtained a first class degree, he was a lecturer in Political Economy at St. Andrews before unsuccessfully standing for the Dundee East constituency in 1970. He was briefly a councillor in the London Borough of Bromley in the mid-1970s. He was elected MP for East Renfrewshire in 1979 and continued as MP in its successor Eastwood from 1983 until 1997. He two spells as Under Secretary of State at the Scottish Office from 1981 to 1986, and from 1990 to 1995.

He was forced to resign his ministerial post after an incident in February 1995 when he brandished a pickaxe at demonstrators who were protesting at the construction of the M77 motorway. Stewart was hospitalised after suffering a nervous breakdown in March 1997. He did not seek re-election to Parliament in the General Election held on May 1 that year and left politics altogether.

References

* "Times Guide to the House of Commons", Times Newspapers Limited, 1992 and 1997 editions.

###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title = Member of Parliament for East Renfrewshire
years = 1979–1983
before = Betty Harvie Anderson
after = "(constituency abolished)"succession box
title = Member of Parliament for Eastwood
years = 1983–1997
before = "(new constituency)"
after = Jim Murphy