John Home Robertson

One of his forebears was a Member of the (original) Parliament of Scotland, for Berwickshire, in 1707 who opposed the Act of Union.

John David Home Robertson was born at 18 Eglinton Crescent, Edinburgh, the son of John Wallace Robertson, Lieutenant-Colonel of the King's Own Scottish Borderers regiment, who assumed the additional surname in 1933, by Scottish Licence, of Home following his marriage that year to Helen Margaret (1905–1987), elder daughter and heiress of David William Milne-Home (1873–1918), of Wedderburn & Paxton, Berwickshire.

He was educated at Farleigh School, Ampleforth College and at the West of Scotland Agricultural College.

John David Home Robertson (born 5 December 1948) is a retired Labour politician in Scotland.

He was an Independent member of Berwickshire District Council from 1974 to 1978, and of the Borders NHS Health Board 1975–78.

As a delegate to the Labour Party Conference in 1976, Home Robertson moved the resolution which committed the Party to devolution for Scotland, and throughout his career at Westminster he campaigned for the establishment of the Scottish Parliament.

He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwick and East Lothian and East Lothian from 1978 to 2001 and a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for East Lothian from 1999 until 2007.

Home Robertson was the successful Labour candidate at the Berwick and East Lothian by-election in 1978, following the death of Labour MP John Mackintosh.

At Westminster, Home Robertson served on the Scottish Affairs (1979–83) and Defence (1990–) Select committees, and was Chairman of the Scottish Group of Labour M.P.s, 1982–83.

He represented Berwick and East Lothian until the 1983 general election, when the constituency was abolished and he was elected for the new constituency of East Lothian.

He spent time as Opposition Scottish Whip, 1983–84, as Labour's Opposition Front Bench Spokesman on: Agriculture (1984–87), Scottish Affairs (1987–88), Agricultural and Rural Affairs (1988–), and Food (1989–).

He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Jack Cunningham at the Ministry of Agriculture and then at the Cabinet Office.

In 1988, Home Robertson placed his maternal family's historic home and grounds, Paxton House, in a Historic Buildings Preservation Trust, and opened it to the public.

It is a Partner Gallery of the National Galleries of Scotland.

A Europhile, Home Robertson was one of only five Labour MPs to vote for the Third Reading of the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, defying his party Whip, which was to abstain.

He was re-elected at subsequent general elections before standing down at the 2001 election, when he was replaced by Anne Picking.

He announced that would stand down from the Scottish Parliament in 2007, and was succeeded by Iain Gray.