Jimmy Wray

{{Short description|Scottish politician (1935–2013)}}

{{For|those of a similar name|James Ray (disambiguation){{!}}James Ray}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|honorific-prefix =

|name = Jimmy Wray

|image =

|constituency_MP = Glasgow Baillieston
Glasgow Provan (1987–1997)

|term_start = 11 June 1987

|term_end = 11 April 2005

|predecessor = Hugh Brown

|successor = Constituency Abolished

|birth_date = {{birth date|1935|04|28|df=yes}}

|birth_place = Govan, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

|death_date = {{death date and age |2013|5|25|1935|4|28|df=yes}}

|death_place = Mearnskirk Home Hospital, Renfrewshire, Scotland, UK

|birthname = James Aloysius Joseph Patrick Gabriel Wray

|nationality = British

|party = Labour Party}}

James Aloysius Joseph Patrick Gabriel WrayAaron Goldstein [http://spectator.org/blog/2013/05/25/jimmy-wray-rip "Jimmy Wray, R.I.P."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130612031931/http://spectator.org/blog/2013/05/25/jimmy-wray-rip |date=12 June 2013 }}, The American Spectator, 25 May 2013. (28 April 1935 – 25 May 2013)[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/10080391/Jimmy-Wray-former-Labour-MP-dies-at-78.html "Jimmy Wray, former Labour MP, dies at 78"], telegraph.co.uk, 25 May 2013 was a Scottish politician and Labour Member of Parliament for Glasgow Baillieston and Glasgow Provan.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/scotland/664995.stm "'Jack-the-lad' MP"], BBC News, 3 March 2000.

Born and raised in the Gorbals,Fiona McKay [http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/estranged-wife-pays-tribute-to-lion-of-a-man-jimmy-wray.21181368 "Estranged wife pays tribute to 'lion of a man' Jimmy Wray"], The Herald, 27 May 2013 he was one of eight children born in an economically disadvantaged Roman Catholic family.Brian Beacom [http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/obituaries/jimmy-wray.21190518 "Jimmy Wray"], The Herald, 27 May 2013. A boxer in his younger days, he was elected as a councillor to the then Glasgow Town Council in 1964 for Kelvinside, and moved over to the larger Strathclyde Regional Council in 1975 for Gorbals. He successfully blocked implementation of fluoridation in court by arguing it violated the 1946 Water Act and the 1968 Medicine Act.{{When|date=March 2015}}

Wray became a rag and bone man, a coalman and a lorry driver, owning a fleet of lorries and a coal business, and became a property developer. By the time he became an MP, Wray was a wealthy man. He was on the left-wing of the Labour Party, and joined the Campaign Group. His political stances were Eurosceptic, an advocate of Irish republicanism regarding Northern Ireland,Robert Waller and Byron Criddle [https://books.google.com/books?id=amqVCts7MMUC&pg=PA312 The Almanac of British Politics], London and New York: Routledge, 1999 (6th ed.), p. 312. and opposed to abortion and the abolition of Section 28.Rory Reynolds, [http://www.scotsman.com/scotland-on-sunday/politics/former-glasgow-mp-jimmy-wray-dies-at-78-1-2944743 "Former Glasgow MP Jimmy Wray dies at 78"], Scotland on Sunday, 26 May 2013 His views on Northern Ireland led him to be tagged "I.R. Wray" by Private Eye. In 2002, he attacked the Scottish Parliament, labelling its members "odds and sods".[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1888050.stm "MP lays into Scots Labour colleagues"], BBC News, 22 March 2002

Wray stood down as an MP, aged 70, at the 2005 general election following a stroke in December 2003.