Following unsuccessful election campaigns in the safe
Conservative seats of
Croydon Central in 1983 and
Peterborough in 1987, MacKinlay regained the historically safe Labour seat of
Thurrock in 1992 from the Conservatives. On 15 June 1992, he tabled an
Early day motion, seeking a pardon for soldiers executed in the First World War. This campaign eventually succeeded with the
Armed Forces Act 2006, where section 359 pardoned 306 British Empire soldiers. In 1998 MacKinlay was the first to introduce a
freedom of information bill to the House of Commons. Although MacKinlay had originally come from the right of the Labour Party, as an MP he came to be associated with the
Labour left as a leader of a group of left-wing Labour MPs nicknamed the "
awkward squad," known for rebelling against the
New Labour leadership of
Tony Blair. MacKinlay maintained that he had not moved toward the left, but that the leadership of the Labour Party under Blair had moved to the
political right. He continued to rebel against his party under the New Labour leadership of
Gordon Brown; by 2008, he had broken the party whip 72 times. In 2003, MacKinlay described
Dr David Kelly as "
chaff" during Dr Kelly's appearance before the
House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. The committee was investigating issues around the British government's dossier on
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. MacKinlay's question was: :I reckon you are chaff; you have been thrown up to divert our probing. Have you ever felt like a fall-guy? You have been set up, have you not? MacKinlay apparently meant "chaff" as in the
radar countermeasure rather than
something of little value. It emerged during Kelly's
subsequent inquest, however, that Kelly had been deeply upset by his treatment before the committee and had privately described an MP, assumed to be MacKinlay, as an "utter bastard". MacKinlay reportedly apologised to Kelly's widow for the remark. According to one report, in May 2007, MacKinlay made the nomination that resulted in
Gordon Brown having enough nominations to be certain of not facing a contest over the leadership of the party. However, another report states that the decisive nomination was made by
Tony Wright with MacKinlay yet to nominate at that point.
Notice of resignation On 24 July 2009, he announced that he would not stand at the next General Election due to disillusionment with the way he felt other MPs had caved in to party pressure rather than standing up for their beliefs. He said that the final straw was the failure of a number of Labour MPs who had expressed support for
Gary McKinnon, awaiting extradition to the US on computer hacking charges, to vote for a review of the extradition treaty.
Damages win On 1 October 2009, MacKinlay accepted a public apology and libel damages from the
BBC over allegations made on
BBC Two's
Newsnight programme that he proposed an amendment to a British government motion on expenses of MPs so he would benefit financially.
Ireland and the Commonwealth MacKinlay argued that initiatives should be taken to encourage
Ireland to participate in the
Commonwealth. He brought forward a motion on the issue in the House of Commons. Ireland had participated in the Commonwealth in the 1930s and 40s. Mackinlay's view was that historians were wrong to say that Ireland had left the Commonwealth in 1949. This was, he said, because the Commonwealth, to the extent that it existed, was nothing like the Commonwealth of today. He felt that the
London Declaration formula that permitted republics to participate in the Commonwealth had not been offered to Ireland as an option, though he felt it was not too late to do so. He argued that Ireland should be formally invited to join and that the Commonwealth was its "natural place". ==Personal life==