Lord Wallace of Tankerness, Scottish Lib Dem who served in coalitions with both Labour and Tories

Lord Wallace of Tankerness, who has died aged 71, was a popular Liberal Democrat who served in coalitions with Labour at Holyrood – as Deputy First Minister – and with the Conservatives at Westminster, as Advocate General and deputy Leader of the Lords.

MP for Orkney and Shetland from 1983 to 2001 (initially as a Liberal) and MSP for Orkney post-devolution, Jim Wallace led the Scottish Liberal Democrats from 1992 to 2005 and the Lib Dems in the upper house from 2013 to 2016.

He twice stood in as acting First Minister: in 2000, after Donald Dewar’s sudden death, and in 2001 following the resignation of Henry McLeish. He doubled as Minister of Justice from 1999 to 2003, then Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning.

Wallace was energetic, affable and easier to get to know than most Liberal MPs; nevertheless the Liberal leader David Steel reckoned him to be “not as nice as he looks”. Politically he was centrist and strongly pro-Europe (except where fisheries were concerned); he backed restrictions on abortion, with Scotland free to decide; opposed the National Lottery and curbs on fox-hunting; and supported votes at 16.

A committed devolutionist, he resented Tony Blair committing Labour to a second referendum on a Scottish Parliament instead of simply legislating, seeing “yet another attempt to reassure Tory Middle England”. But Paddy Ashdown, on taking up the leadership of the new Liberal Democrats, trusted him to be one of a small group of Lib Dems who at various points sought common ground with Labour.

Away from politics, Wallace was an elder of St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall, and only the second lay person in modern times to be Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in 2021-22. With Covid rampant, he moderated proceedings in an almost-empty Assembly Hall with the Court’s members online on screens around him.

James Robert Wallace was born in Annan, Dumfriesshire, on August 25 1954, one of two sons of John Wallace, an accountant and for 64 years an elder of Old Annan Parish Church, and the former Grace Maxwell.

From Annan Academy, he took a First in economics and law at Downing College, Cambridge, then in 1977 his LLB at Edinburgh University. He was called to the Scottish Bar in 1979, then practised as an advocate in Edinburgh, handling mostly civil cases. He took Silk in 1997.

Young Jim began as a Conservative. Aged eight, he was fascinated by the machinations surrounding Harold Macmillan’s resignation. He collected autographs from visiting politicians, treasuring one from Tam Dalyell, with whom he later served in the Commons.

He joined the Scottish Liberals in 1971, and at Edinburgh University chaired the Liberal Club. He was elected to the Scottish party’s executive in 1976, and from 1982 to 1985 was its vice-chairman for policy.

Wallace first stood for Parliament in 1979, for his home constituency of Dumfriesshire, finishing a poor third but becoming the first Liberal to save their deposit since 1945.

When the Liberal/SDP alliance was negotiated in 1982, Dumfriesshire was allocated to the SDP; Wallace reluctantly stood down. He was adopted for Kinross, but then the former Liberal leader Jo Grimond decided not to stand again for Orkney and Shetland and Wallace was chosen to succeed him. In those days it was very unusual for a Liberal candidate succeeding a party veteran to hold their seat, but Wallace did so by 4,150 votes.

In his maiden speech he appealed for a consistent tax regime for offshore oil and gas instead of the industry being “a beast to be milked whenever revenue requirements demand it”. Made Liberal spokesman on energy and fishing, he opposed nuclear reprocessing at Dounreay and deplored the “selling-out of British fishing interests” by EEC ministers.

Wallace’s toughest time in politics was his two years as party defence spokesman from 1985. Liberals were deeply divided over whether to keep nuclear weapons, with the SDP’s Dr David Owen insistent that they must be. The issue came to a head just before the 1986 Liberal Assembly; Wallace’s call for compromise was regarded as limp.

Safely re-elected in 1987, he backed Steel’s call for a merger with the SDP, talked an uncertain Simon Hughes into accepting it, and was instrumental in killing off the merged party’s first manifesto. He voted for Alan Beith to lead the Lib Dems, but the victorious Ashdown was happy to keep Wallace on, making him chief whip and employment spokesman. In 1989 he was involved in abortive negotiations to bring Owen’s rump Social Democrats into the party.

After the 1992 election, Wallace was elected unopposed to lead the Scottish Lib Dems in succession to Malcolm Bruce. He defended MPs who voted for the Maastricht Treaty against criticism that they were propping up a discredited Tory government – and one left with only 10 MPs in Scotland that was resisting constitutional change.

As New Labour swept to power in 1997 committed to an early referendum on devolution, Wallace held his seat with his best majority: 6,968. He campaigned enthusiastically for a “Yes, Yes” vote when the referendum was held, and was jubilant at its outcome.

Two years later, he led the Scottish Liberal Democrats into the first election for the reinstated Scottish Parliament, himself winning the Orkney constituency with two-thirds of the votes cast. Initially he kept his Westminster seat, but gave it up at the 2001 general election.

The Lib Dems were the fourth largest party at Holyrood with 17 seats – one behind the Conservatives – and the proportional system adopted left Labour nine seats short of a majority. Dewar chose a formal coalition rather than try to operate as a minority government; he opened negotiations with Wallace, and after a week a partnership agreement was signed.

Three Lib Dem MSPs voted against coalition, Donald Gorrie dubbing Labour “the biggest bunch of liars you could meet”. But Wallace – with Ashdown’s backing – became Deputy First Minister and Minister of Justice, the first Liberal minister since Sir Archibald Sinclair in Churchill’s wartime coalition. He was made a privy counsellor in 2000.

Wallace promised a wider Freedom of Information Bill than Labour planned at Westminster. He also – opening an issue that would nearly wipe out the Lib Dems nationally a decade later – announced an independent inquiry into tuition fees.

Labour was committed to making students pay their own fees; the Lib Dems had promised to abolish them as their price for entering a coalition. The inquiry led to a means-tested deferred payment scheme, Blair having vetoed abolishing upfront tuition fees as it would have left Westminster paying for 99,000 EU students in Scotland.

At the 2003 elections, Wallace’s Lib Dems again won 17 seats but with a higher share of the vote. He renewed the coalition with Labour, by now led by Jack McConnell, with Labour’s proposals on anti-social behaviour dropped or limited, and PR promised for Scottish council elections.

Wallace left Justice to become Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning. Following the 2005 general election, he stood down as party leader and Deputy First Minister, continuing as MSP for Orkney until the 2007 Holyrood election. On being made a life peer, he took the title Baron Wallace of Tankerness in Orkney.

In 2008 he was appointed to Sir Kenneth Calman’s Commission on Scottish Devolution. When the Conservative leader David Cameron formed his Coalition with the Lib Dems after the inconclusive 2010 general election, Wallace became Advocate General for Scotland, one of the Law Officers.​

In 2013, he was elected unopposed to lead the Lib Dem peers on the resignation of Lord McNally to head the Criminal Justice Board. He also became Deputy Leader of the Lords. In 2016 he stood down, after 28 years in “frontline” politics.

Wallace chaired at various times the regulation board of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and the charity Reprieve. He was an honorary professor at Heriot-Watt University’s Institute of Petroleum Engineering, and an honorary Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn. In 2008, he received a lifetime achievement award in the Scottish Politician of the Year Awards.

Jim Wallace married Rosemary Fraser in 1983. She survives him with their two daughters.

Jim Wallace, born August 25 1954, died January 29 2026​

[Source: Daily Telegraph]