William Baxter (4 December 1911 – 20 April 1979) was a British Labour Party politician, building contractor and farmer.

He was a conscientious objector in the Second World War.

Having served as a councillor, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for West Stirlingshire from 1959 until he stood down at the October 1974 general election.

He was asked to stand down by his Constituency Labour Party after the indecisive election of February 1974, when he appeared on television calling for an all-party government of national unity, and suggested that the Duke of Edinburgh could chair its meetings.

In 1961, as a protest against bipartisan support for British nuclear weapons, he voted against the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, and British Army Estimates in the House of Commons, and was suspended from the Labour Party Whip from March 1961 until May 1963.

Baxter received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1976.^[1]

References

• Times Guide to the House of Commons February 1974
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages

External links

• Portraits of William Baxter at the National Portrait Gallery, London