David Gibson (UK politician)

David Gibson was a Scottish socialist politician.

Gibson joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and at the 1935 UK general election was its candidate in Stirling East and Clackmannan.^[1] He was elected to Glasgow City Council,^[2] and he stood unsuccessfully in the Liverpool Edge Hill by-election, 1947.

In 1948, Gibson succeeded Robert Edwards as chairman of the ILP.^[3] As chairman, he focussed on opposing war, and feared that the North Atlantic Treaty would lead to a Third World War.^[4]

Gibson was succeeded as chairman by Fred Barton in 1951, and focussed on his role as chair of the Glasgow Corporation's Housing sub-Committee on Sites and Buildings, working to build council housing in the city as rapidly as possible.^[5] At the 1951 UK general election, Gibson was selected as the party's candidate for Glasgow Shettleston, but he withdrew shortly before the election, to the disappointment of the party. In 1953, he resigned from the ILP and joined the Labour Party.^[6]

By 1961, Gibson was the baillie - most senior magistrate - of Glasgow and was active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.^[7]

References

1. "I.L.P. Candidate", Manchester Guardian, 15 October 1935
2. "I.L.P. to fight Renfrew", Manchester Guardian, 23 March 1940
3. LSE Library Archives Catalogue: Independent Labour Party
4. "'Atlantic Pact will lead to war' - I.L.P. Chairman", Manchester Guardian, 17 April 1949
5. Jane M Jacobs, Stephen Cairns & Ignaz Strebel, "'A tall storey... but, a fact just the same': The Red Road highrise as a black box", Institute of Geography Online Paper Series: GEO-023
6. The Word, vol.15/16, p.99
7. "CND March in Glasgow", The Guardian, 16 October 1961