Ernie Ross, who has died aged 79, was an energetic and able working-class Labour MP who represented his native Dundee for 26 years. The select committee investigated what became known as the Sandline affair, involving an obscure company that sold arms into Sierra Leone despite a UN embargo. Ernie leaked a draft of the select committee report to Cook, who made the mistake of pre-empting its findings in interviews before they had been published. Ernie came into Labour politics through the trade union route. Two leading figures and close friends were Willie McKelvey, who became MP for Kilmarnock, and Ernie, who succeeded Peter Doig in Dundee West.

Source: The North Africa Journal October 31, 2021 16:44 UTC