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Scotland: Former minister McCabe dies at 60

FORMER Scottish Executive minister Tom McCabe died yesterday aged 60 after a short illness.

Mr McCabe was MSP for Hamilton South from 1999 until 2011.

Tributes have come from across the political spectrum.

Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy said that Mr McCabe was a “dedicated servant of the Labour movement and a radical finance minister in the last Scottish Labour government.”

First Minister Nicola ­Sturgeon said: “Tom McCabe was a genuinely good guy.”

Mr McCabe held a succession of ministerial posts in the Labour-led governments at Holyrood from 1999 to 2007.

He also held the distinction of being the first-ever member of the Scottish Parliament when his victory in Hamilton South was announced 75 minutes after polls closed in May 1999.

He lost to the SNP’s Christina McKelvie by 2,213 votes in 2011 when the seat became Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse.

Before entering parliament Mr McCabe had a career in social work and had been an engineering union leader at the Hoover factory in Cambuslang.

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