Michael Forsyth, Baron Forsyth of Drumlean
Michael Bruce Forsyth, Baron Forsyth of Drumlean,
PC, is a
Conservative &
Unionist Party politician in the
United Kingdom. He served as
Secretary of State for Scotland from
1995 to
1997, during which he led a high profile but ultimately unsuccessful campaign against the opposition parties' plans to establish a devolved
Scottish Parliament.
He particularly homed in on the proposals for the parliament to have the power to vary the basic rate of income tax by up to three pence in the pound, which he repeatedly dubbed the "Tartan Tax". Forsyth's persistence was widely credited with prompting the
Labour Party's unexpected decision - bitterly criticised by the
Liberal Democrats and the
Scottish National Party - to separate out the tax-varying issue in a two-question referendum on devolution. However the "Tartan Tax" label was not enough to prevent the Scottish electorate ultimately voting in favour of the proposal by an almost two-to-one margin.
Forsyth first entered parliament for
Stirling in the
1983 election, and lost his seat to
Anne McGuire from
Labour in the
1997 election. He is now a member of the
House of Lords, and worked in the
City of London for
investment bank,
JPMorgan; latterly as Deputy Chairman; he stepped down from this position in July 2005.
He is a keen fly fisherman.
