Holyrood pays emotional tributes to its first deputy first minister Lord Wallace

Scots are “immeasurably richer” because of Jim Wallace, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said as Holyrood paid an emotional tribute to Lord Jim Wallace.

The former Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, who served as Scotland’s first ever deputy first minister – and as acting first minister on three occasions – died suddenly last Thursday.

In the wake of his death, the flags at Holyrood were at half mast today, as his wife Rosie, daughters Helen and Clare and other close family members came to the Parliament to hear tributes to him.

There Holyrood presiding officer Alison Johnstone described him as being “the most passionate of advocates for devolved government” adding that his role in the 1997 referendum which led to the Scottish Parliament being established “cannot be overstated”.

The presiding officer told MSPs: “This is my 27th year in the Scottish Parliament, I know that without Jim Wallace, Parliament would be a different place, a lesser one.”

She added that throughout Lord Wallace’s “incredible career” – which saw him elected as an MP and later an MSP, before becoming advocate general for Scotland and moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland – he had “lived our parliamentary values of wisdom, integrity, justice and compassion”.

Hailing him as a “pillar of this Parliament,” she said: “His steadying hand in some challenging early days was just what was needed.”

Speaking about Lord Wallace, she said: “I learned so much from him.

“Jim Wallace knew what mattered most to people and, with the people of Scotland, the Parliament mourns his passing, gives heartfelt thanks for his contribution and shares our deepest condolences with his family.”

Paying his own tribute, Cole-Hamilton said Liberal Democrats “are heart sore” after Lord Wallace’s sudden death last Thursday as a result of complications from surgery.

Cole-Hamilton said: “We are all the poorer now he has gone, but this Parliament and this country are immeasurably richer because he lived.

Describing Lord Wallace as a “man of profound Christian faith” with a “dedication to public service”, he told how he had been “inspired” when he saw him speak in the referendum campaign back in 1997.

“I absolutely agreed that there should be a Scottish Parliament, and I wanted, one day, to have the opportunity to serve in it,” Cole-Hamilton said.

He recalled how the former Scottish Liberal Democrat leader had been “central to the Constitutional Convention that made the case for devolution” adding that, when the referendum was won, he “became an architect of our reconvened Parliament and of modern Scotland”.

Remembering his “friendship” with the late Donald Dewar, Scotland’s first first minister who died in 2000, he added: “Jim is celebrated for his ability to lay aside political tribalism and to reach for the better nature of his adversaries.

“There is such rancour in our politics today, we could all learn something about his approach and lean into his legacy of doing politics through grace and reconciliation.”

First Minister John Swinney said it was “little surprise” that, when the Liberal Democrat ran for Holyrood in 1999, he had stood in Orkney, “the island archipelago where he lived and that he loved”.

In that election, Swinney said: “Jim ushered the Liberal Democrats into Government in 1999 – the first time Liberals had been in government in the United Kingdom since 1922 – and assumed the role of Scotland’s first deputy first minister.”

Noting that he had served as acting first minister when Dewar became ill in 2000, and then later that year when he died, and then again when successor Henry McLeish resigned, Swinney said that he had “provided stability and a steady hand in times of unexpected upheaval”.

The First Minister added: “In this Parliament’s early years, when it was yet to prove itself in the eyes of many Scots, Jim sought to ensure that it delivered what people had voted for in 1997 – a Parliament that worked together, across parties, to get things done and to improve life for all Scots.”

In an emotional tribute, current Orkney MSP Liam McArthur said he was “devastated” by Lord Wallace’s death.

“I’m dealing with losing one of my closest friends,” he told MSPs.