Robert Finlayson "Robin" Cook (28 February 1946 – 6 August 2005) was a member of the British Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 until his death in 2005. He held the position of Foreign Secretary in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2001, when he was replaced by Jack Straw. Later, he worked as Leader of the House of Commons from 2001 to 2003.
Cook studied at the University of Edinburgh. He was first elected as the MP for Edinburgh Central in 1974. In 1983, he represented the Livingston constituency instead. In Parliament, he was known for his strong speaking skills and quickly advanced in his political career, eventually joining the Cabinet. As Foreign Secretary, he was responsible for British actions in Kosovo and Sierra Leone.
In 2003, Cook left his roles as Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons to protest against the invasion of Iraq. At the time of his death, he was President of the Foreign Policy Centre and a Vice-President of the America All Party Parliamentary Group and the Global Security and Non-Proliferation All Party Parliamentary Group.
Early life
Robin Cook was born at County Hospital in Bellshill, Scotland. He was the only son of Peter and Christina Cook (née Lynch), who were born on May 29, 1912, and died on March 20, 2003. His father was a chemistry teacher who grew up in Fraserburgh, and his grandfather worked as a miner before being prevented from working due to his involvement in a strike.
Cook attended Aberdeen Grammar School and later studied at the Royal High School in Edinburgh starting in 1960. At first, he wanted to become a minister in the Church of Scotland, but he lost his faith after learning more about politics. In 1965, he joined the Labour Party and became an atheist, a belief he kept for the rest of his life.
He studied English literature at the University of Edinburgh, where he earned a master's degree with honors in English Literature. He began researching a PhD on Charles Dickens and Victorian serial novels, guided by John Sutherland, but stopped the program in 1970.
In 1971, after teaching at a secondary school, Cook became a teacher and organizer for the Workers' Educational Association in Lothian and also served as a local councillor in Edinburgh. He left both roles in 1974 when he was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) on his 28th birthday in February.
Early years in Parliament
Cook tried but failed to win the Edinburgh North constituency in the 1970 general election. However, he was elected to the House of Commons in the February 1974 general election as the Member of Parliament for Edinburgh Central, defeating George Foulkes for the nomination. In 1981, Cook was part of the anti-nuclear Labour Party Defence Study Group.
When the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies were changed for the 1983 general election, Cook moved to the new Livingston constituency after Tony Benn chose not to run for that seat. Cook represented Livingston until his death. In Parliament, Cook belonged to the left-wing Tribune Group of the Parliamentary Labour Party and often disagreed with the policies of the Wilson and Callaghan governments. He supported efforts to change how elections are held and how the government is structured. He opposed devolution in the 1979 referendum but later supported it after the 1983 election. Cook also worked to increase the number of female members of Parliament.
In May 2005, one month before his death, Cook said: "My nightmare is that we will have been 12 years in office, with the ability to reform the electoral system, and will fail to do so until we are back in opposition, in perhaps a decade of Conservative government, regretting that we left in place the electoral system that allowed Conservative governments on a minority vote."
Cook supported ending nuclear weapons unilaterally and encouraged the Labour Party to move away from its opposition to European Union policies in the 1970s and 1980s. In his early years in Parliament, Cook supported several social reforms, though some had mixed results. He tried but failed to pass a private member’s bill to reform divorce laws in Scotland. However, in July 1980, after three years of effort, he successfully pushed for an amendment to align Scottish laws on homosexuality with those in England.
After Labour lost the general election in May 1979, Cook supported Michael Foot’s bid to lead the party and joined his campaign committee. When Tony Benn challenged Denis Healey for the party’s deputy leadership in September 1981, Cook supported Healey.
In opposition
Cook was known for being a skilled speaker in Parliament and advanced in the Labour Party. He became a frontbench spokesman in 1980 and joined the Shadow Cabinet in June 1983 as the spokesperson on European affairs. He managed Neil Kinnock’s successful campaign to become Labour Party leader in 1983. A year later, he became the party’s campaign coordinator. However, in October 1986, he was unexpectedly removed from the Shadow Cabinet. He was re-elected to the Shadow Cabinet in July 1987 and joined Labour’s National Executive Committee in October 1988. Cook played a major role in modernizing the Labour Party under Kinnock. He held positions such as Shadow Health Secretary (1987–92) and Shadow Trade Secretary (1992–94), and later became Shadow Foreign Secretary (1994–97) and Foreign Secretary (1997–2001), which was his most well-known role.
In 1994, after the death of John Smith, Cook decided not to run for Labour’s leadership, stating he was not “insufficiently attractive” to win an election. Two recent family losses around the time of the decision may have influenced this choice.
On 26 February 1996, after the release of the Scott Report on the "Arms-to-Iraq" affair, Cook gave a speech responding to Ian Lang, the President of the Board of Trade. He said, “this is not just a Government which does not know how to accept blame; it is a Government which knows no shame.” His performance during the debate on the 2,000-page Scott Report, which he claimed he had only two hours to read, was praised by members from both political parties as one of the best in Parliament in years. The government won the vote by just one vote.
As Joint Chairman of the Labour-Liberal Democrat Joint Consultative Committee on Constitutional Reform, Cook helped create the "Cook-Maclennan Agreement." This agreement provided the foundation for major changes to the British constitution outlined in Labour’s 1997 general election manifesto. These changes included reforms such as Scottish and Welsh devolution, the Human Rights Act, and the removal of most hereditary peers from the House of Lords.
In government
In 1997, after the Labour Party won the general election and Tony Blair became Prime Minister, Robin Cook became the Foreign Secretary. He had previously worked as the Shadow Foreign Secretary for three years. Although he wanted to work in an economics-related role, Gordon Brown insisted he remain in the Foreign Office. Cook announced his plan to add a moral aspect to foreign policy, but the press quickly interpreted this as the government adopting a more ethical approach to international matters.
As Foreign Secretary, Cook was involved in British actions in Kosovo and Sierra Leone. These actions were controversial: the Kosovo mission was not approved by the United Nations Security Council, and in Sierra Leone, it was reported that a British company, Sandline International, had sent weapons to supporters of the former president, violating a UN embargo. Cook also faced embarrassment when his offer to help resolve the India-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir was rejected. Critics questioned whether his policies truly matched his stated ethical goals.
Cook played a key role in ending the Iranian threat against author Salman Rushdie, which allowed the UK and Iran to improve their diplomatic relations. He also helped resolve an eight-year delay in the trial of those accused of the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing by persuading Libya to send the two suspects, Megrahi and Fhimah, to the Netherlands for trial under Scots law in 1999.
In 1998, tensions arose with Israel when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a meeting with Cook during a visit to Israel, after Cook expressed concerns about the expansion of Israeli settlements. Cook had a strong working relationship with Madeleine Albright, the U.S. Secretary of State, but found it difficult to work with the new U.S. administration led by George W. Bush, which took office in 2001.
Although Cook supported republicanism, he and Queen Elizabeth II were said to have a good relationship because they both enjoyed horseback riding. After the 2001 general election, Cook was moved against his wishes from the Foreign Office to the position of Leader of the House of Commons. Many saw this as a demotion, as the role, while part of the Cabinet, was considered less important than being Foreign Secretary. Cook accepted the position and later said it allowed him to spend more time on his favorite work. Tony Blair reportedly made the move to avoid political conflicts within the Cabinet over European issues, as Cook was a strong supporter of European unity.
As Leader of the House of Commons, Cook worked to improve the rules and hours of the House of Commons and led discussions about reforming the House of Lords. He also defended the government during a 2001 controversy involving accusations that government officials had removed outspoken members from select committees. Cook served as President of the Party of European Socialists from 2001 to 2004.
In 2003, during a television debate on BBC’s Question Time, a presenter mistakenly called Cook “Robin Cock.” Cook responded with humor, saying, “Yes, David Bumblebee,” and the presenter apologized. During the same appearance, Cook defended the government’s position on the upcoming invasion of Iraq, which led to his resignation weeks later.
Cook wrote a book titled The Point of Departure, which detailed his work as Leader of the House of Commons and his efforts to reform the House of Lords and distance the Labour government from the policies of the U.S. administration under George W. Bush. The book was praised by journalists as a valuable look into the inner workings of the Blair government.
In early 2003, Cook resigned from the Cabinet after opposing the decision to send British troops to Iraq without international agreement or public support. In his resignation speech to Parliament, he said, “I cannot accept collective responsibility for the decision to commit Britain to military action in Iraq without international agreement or domestic support.” He praised Tony Blair’s efforts to seek a second UN resolution on Iraq but criticized the lack of support from international organizations. Cook’s speech received an unusual standing ovation from members of Parliament and the public, marking the first such event in the history of the House of Commons, according to The Economist.
Outside the government
After leaving the Cabinet in 2003, Cook continued to serve as a Member of Parliament who did not hold a government position until his death. Following his exit from the Government, Cook became a key expert on the decision to go to war in Iraq. He provided information to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, which was later used during the Hutton and Butler inquiries. Cook disagreed with the ideas in the Government's Higher Education Bill and did not vote on its second reading. He supported the proposed European Constitution and the plan to reform the House of Lords to create a second chamber where most members are elected. As Leader of the Commons, he stated, "I do not see how [the House of Lords] can be a democratic second Chamber if it is also an election-free zone."
In October 2004, Cook appeared on the BBC television show Have I Got News for You.
After leaving the Foreign Office and especially after resigning from the Cabinet, Cook reconciled with Gordon Brown after many years of personal conflict. This was made possible after Frank Dobson, who had tried to mediate between them in the early 1990s, told John Smith, "You're right. They hate each other." Cook and Brown focused on shared political goals, discussing how to strengthen progressive politics after Tony Blair left the leadership of the Labour Party. In 2005, Chris Smith noted that Cook had developed a vision of "libertarian, democratic socialism" that moved beyond traditional labels for Labour. As Tony Blair's popularity declined, Cook actively worked to encourage Labour supporters to remain with the party ahead of the 2005 general election.
In a newspaper article for the Guardian four weeks before his death, Cook wrote that Al-Qaeda was a result of Western intelligence actions. He explained that during the 1980s, the CIA provided weapons and the Saudi government funded Osama bin Laden to fight against the Soviet Union's presence in Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda, which means "the database," was originally a list of thousands of fighters trained by the CIA to combat the Soviets.
Some analysts and politicians believed Cook would hold a high position in the Government if Gordon Brown became Prime Minister.
In the 2005 general election, Cook, who had not run as a backbencher for over 20 years, won his Livingston seat with a larger majority of 13,097 votes. He held this position until his death three months later.
Personal life
Cook's first wife was Margaret Katherine Whitmore, from Somerset, whom he met at Edinburgh University. They married on September 15, 1969, at St Alban's Church in Westbury Park, Bristol, and had two sons.
After becoming Foreign Secretary, Cook ended his marriage to Margaret. He admitted to having an affair with one of his staff, Gaynor Regan. On August 2, 1997, Cook announced his plan to leave his wife in a public statement at Heathrow Airport. This decision came after a phone call with Alastair Campbell, who told Cook that the media was about to reveal the affair. Margaret later claimed Cook had multiple affairs and drank heavily.
Cook married Regan on April 9, 1998, in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, four weeks after his divorce from Margaret was finalized.
Cook learned about horse racing through his first wife. In his free time, he gave advice on horse races. From 1991 to 1998, Cook wrote a weekly column about horse racing for The Herald newspaper in Glasgow. After Cook left the position, Alex Salmond took over the role.
Death
In early August 2005, Cook and his wife, Gaynor, went on a two-week vacation in the Scottish Highlands. On August 6, 2005, around 2:20 p.m., Cook was walking down Ben Stack in Sutherland when he had a serious heart attack. He fell to the ground, lost consciousness, and fell about 8 feet (2.4 meters) down a ridge. Another hiker helped him after the fall but did not allow his name to be shared publicly. A helicopter carrying medical workers arrived 30 minutes after a 999 call was made. Cook was then taken by helicopter to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.
Gaynor did not travel by helicopter and walked down the mountain. Although medical workers tried to help Cook in the helicopter, he had already died. He was declared dead at 4:05 p.m., shortly after arriving at the hospital. He was 59 years old. Two days later, a medical exam confirmed that Cook had died from hypertensive heart disease.
A funeral was held on August 12, 2005, at St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh, even though Cook had been an atheist. Gordon Brown gave a speech, and Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, attended. Tony Blair, who was on vacation at the time, did not go.
A later memorial service at St Margaret's, Westminster, on December 5, 2005, included a reading by Blair and speeches by Brown and Madeleine Albright. On September 29, 2005, Jim Devine, who had been Cook’s friend and election agent since 1983, won the by-election that followed Cook’s death with a smaller majority than before.
In January 2007, a headstone was placed in Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh, where Cook is buried. The headstone reads: "I may not have succeeded in halting the war, but I did secure the right of parliament to decide on war." This refers to Cook’s strong opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. His wife and two sons from a previous marriage chose these words.
In April 2022, an individual asked Police Scotland for seven pieces of information about Cook’s death. The person’s name was hidden. The request was first denied, but the Scottish Information Commissioner later said the police had broken the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. This has led to new questions about the events surrounding Cook’s death.