In 2020 he won a local election in Bristol in a ‘lucky dip’ following a dead heat
Doug Naysmith, who has died aged 82, was a bearded Scottish immunologist who as Labour and Co-Operative MP for Bristol North West from 1997 to 2010 took a leading role in Parliament’s handling of health and science issues.
A Bristol city councillor for 21 years either side of his service in Parliament, he was generally a loyal backbencher, though he did abstain over Britain’s participation in the Iraq War and opposed the creation of Foundation Hospitals.
Naysmith was co-chair of Labour’s backbench health committee and a driving force within the Health Select Committee; he came to resent the lack of outside awareness of what the panel managed to achieve. His own proudest moment came in 2007 when the Government banned smoking in public places, in good measure as a result of his campaigning.
A long-standing member of the Socialist Health Association and a Fellow of the Royal College of Medicine, he was also chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, secretary of the Parliamentary Universities Group and president of the Dementia Care Trust.