He opposed devolution as a step towards separatism and clashed with the Bennite activist left. His views on royalty and his inability to hide them cost him any hope of a ministerial appointment in the Wilson governments.Paying tribute, John Reid, the Scottish Secretary, said last night: “Willie Hamilton was a man of principle, style and humour.” Henry McLeish, the MP who took over his seat in 1987, said: “I think everybody will be saddened in the constituency of Central Fife. He was always regarded as a right-winger in Labour Party terms. He supported membership of the European Economic Community, which became the EU, and was opposed to unilateral disarmament.The son of a Durham miner and educated at Washington Grammar School and Sheffield University, the former teacher beat the popular Communist, Willie Gallacher, with the help of local Catholic Action to win his seat, and held on to it with his maverick brand of populist socialism. I’m expected to open my mouth every time one of them sneezes or falls off a horse.

I’m a court jester,” he said.Mr Hamilton was regarded as a veteran of the awkward squad, but much of his criticism of the Royal Family was made jovially and without malice. I put down questions comparing the money for the Queen with the increase in school dinner charges,” he once said.But towards the end of his parliamentary career he began to think that his virulent anti-royal campaign had detracted from what he called the remaining 99 per cent of his work. “I was happy at first to get abit of cheap publicity, but now I realise that it was a mistake. His attacks began when he first won his seat, West Fife, which later became Fife Central, in 1950.”I noticed that Queen Mary was getting £70,000 a year from the Civil List. This was at a time when I had had to borrow £40 from my constituency for my wife and I to live in London. “This is a proposal based on a misunderstanding, and its social cost will be high.”.

The scourge of the Royal Family for nearly half acentury, Willie Hamilton, has died aged 82. The scourge of the Royal Family for nearly half acentury, Willie Hamilton, has died aged 82.
The former Labour MP for Fife Central made a political career out of his campaign against royal privilege and his waspish comments about the Royal Family. “There is a real danger that the abolition of Section 28 will lead to the promotion of a homosexual lifestyle as morally equivalent to marriage,” he said. Ben Bradshaw, a gay Labour MP, warned the weekly meeting: “It will be a terrible tactical and moral mistake not to whip the vote.”Ann Keen, a leading Labour campaigner for gay rights, attacked a free vote as “totally unnecessary”. Alice Mahon, another Labour backbencher, said: “A free vote would be giving in to bigotry.”Religious leaders were joined by the Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, in opposing its repeal.