Menzies Campbell, the long-serving Liberal Democrat MP who also led the party for 18 months, has died aged 84, his family have said.
Lord Campbell, usually known as Ming, died in London after a period of respite care, his grandson Gregor Grant-Suttie said in a statement. He had spent some of his final days watching last weekend’s Lib Dem conference.
Campbell spent nearly three decades as MP for North East Fife and became party leader in 2006 after Charles Kennedy stepped down suddenly, saying he was being treated for alcoholism.
Campbell had a sometimes difficult period as leader and when it appeared that Gordon Brown was about to call an election is 2007 there was speculation about a leadership challenge.
While the election did not happen, Campbell resigned, saying “questions about leadership are getting in the way of further progress by the party”. Vince Cable took over on an interim basis before a leadership election won by Nick Clegg, whom Campbell had promoted to become home affairs spokesperson.
Campbell became a peer after losing his seat in the near wipeout of Lib Dem MPs at the 2015 election.
He studied at Glasgow and Stanford universities and was a barrister before becoming a politician. He was also a hugely talented sprinter, competing for Britain at the 1964 Olympics, and he held the UK record for 100m with a time of 10.2 seconds, a mark set in 1967 that stood until 1974.
At the 1964 Tokyo Games, Campbell, then aged 23, took part in the 200m, reaching the quarter-finals, and the 4x100m relay, where the team got to the final.
As a student at Stanford, he raced against and beat OJ Simpson, who had a college athletics career before turning to American football. On one of these occasions, Campbell finished second to Tommie Smith, the US athlete who won the 200m at the 1968 Olympics and famously gave a black power salute from the podium.
Campbell recounted the experience in an interview with a Scottish newspaper. “I’d had a very good indoor season. I ran at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Mount San Antonio relay meet was my first outdoor run and I did 10.2 wind-assisted, beating a certain OJ Simpson, who hadn’t yet switched to American football. I also beat him indoors in Sacramento, the legendary Tommie Smith first, me second, OJ third.”
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, said Campbell was “a dedicated public servant, a tireless champion for Fife, St Andrews and the UK, and a true Liberal giant”.
He said: “He was the Liberal Democrat spokesperson on foreign affairs when the world changed on 9/11 and his principled leadership opposing the Iraq war was a mark of his morality, courage and wisdom. He spoke up for what was right, even when it was hard.
“Like so many of us, I benefited greatly from Ming’s advice and guidance over the many years we worked closely together. But more than that, he was an incredibly warm and caring friend and colleague, with such generosity and humour.
“Ming was always great company – whether talking about sport with the authority of a captain of Britain’s athletics team and a British 100m record holder, or asking about you and your family, when he would always pass on kind thoughts from his wife, Elspeth, his rock.
“All of us in the Liberal Democrat family and beyond will miss him terribly. Our thoughts are with all who loved him.”
After becoming a peer, Campbell remained close to Lib Dem politics and was a regular and affable presence at party events.
In 2023 Elspeth, his wife of more than 50 years, died aged 83. She was the daughter of Maj Gen Roy Urquhart, who led airborne forces in the Battle of Arnhem in 1944 and was subsequently played by Sean Connery in the film A Bridge Too Far.
