Scottish Lawyer Elected Leader of British Labor Party

Britain’s opposition Labor Party on Saturday elected a Scottish lawyer from its right wing as leader to replace Neil Kinnock, who stepped down after Labor’s fourth straight national election defeat.

John Smith, 53, who had been expected to win easily, polled 91% of the votes.

The party’s electoral college, consisting of unions, elected lawmakers and local party organizations, also elected a deputy leader, Margaret Beckett, 49, who was Smith’s choice. She is the first woman to hold the post.

At a party conference convened for the vote, Smith promised that Labor under his leadership will “relentlessly prosecute this government in the House of Commons.”

He said Labor would work to “eliminate poverty, injustice and homelessness . . . to build lasting and sustainable prosperity.”

Smith, the party’s treasury spokesman since 1987, has promised a program to persuade better-off voters to support help for the poor.

Smith is one of a handful of Labor lawmakers who know what it is like to govern, having served as trade secretary under Prime Minister James Callaghan in 1978-79.

The Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher swept to victory in 1979 on dissatisfaction over the strikes and financial turmoil which beset Callaghan’s government.

Before national elections in April, the party had moved its policies sharply toward the center in its search for votes.