Born Aberdeen, March 12, 1938. Died Aberdeen, October 8, 2008, aged 70.
December 4, 2008 11:50Long-serving chairman of the Labour Friends of Israel, Norman Hogg was Parliament’s most persistent questioner on the welfare of the state of Israel, racism and the Jewish community.
He won East Dunbartonshire (later Cumbernauld and Kilsyth) in 1979, and was a deputy chief whip. Retiring in 1997, he became a life peer and was a deputy speaker in the House of Lords.
The son of a trade union official and Lord Provost of Aberdeen, who was appalled at the Holocaust, he was a long-serving elder of the Church of Scotland and vice-president of the Council of Christians and Jews.
He joined LFI on his election as MP and visited Israel several times, leading parliamentary groups. He was chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Friends of Israel and vice-president of the Anglo-Israel Association.
Admired by Tony Blair for his work on the Middle East, he was one of only three non-Jews invited to the thanksgiving service at Bevis Marks in 2006 to commemorate the readmission of Jews to England.
He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth.
Lord Janner of Braunstone writes: Norman Hogg was a close friend of mine and of the Jewish people. He helped build bridges between the Jewish State and, especially, parliamentarians. The Jewish community has lost a vital ally.