Sunday, August 7 2005 11:00 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Robin Cook, who quit as leader of the British House of Commons following strong differences with Prime Minister Tony Blair over the Iraq war, died yesterday (August 6, 2005) within hours after he collapsed on a mountain in Scotland.

He was 59.

Cook, a frontline Labour leader, had visited India several times before becoming Foreign Secretary and while in office. He was regarded as a friend of India.

Lord Swraj Paul, a very close friend of Cook expressed shock at his sudden death and said that it was a loss to Britain and to the Labour Party. "He was an outstanding leader and a good friend who never hesitated to speak his mind. Robin was keen to help resolve tensions in South Asia."

"Robin was the author of the present friendly relationship between India and Britain and it was he who had set up the India-British Round Table of which I had the pleasure to Co-Chair."

"In Robin Cook both Britain and India have lost a great fighter for justice all over the world."

Paul and Cook had travelled together to Jammu and Kashmir before he became the Foreign Secretary and met a cross-section of people and leadership there.

Cook had collapsed with a suspected heart attack on the mountainside while out walking during his summer holidays. He had seriously injured himself in a fall after the collapse.

The father-of-two grown up sons spent nearly half an hour on the mountain before rescue services reached him.

Immediately, he was airlifted to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness where he underwent a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Assistant controller at Kinross, Tom Docherty, said the centre received a call about a 'collapsed male walker'.

"He was given a CPR with instructions over the telephone from ambulance control staff at Inverness."

Cook arrived at hospital about 90 minutes after his collapse and was declared dead five minutes later, an official spokesman said. But it was more than three hours later police confirmed his death.

Cook, a keen hill-walker, regularly spent his summer holidays with close family and friends enjoying the mountain scenery of Highland Scotland, rather than going abroad.

He was appointed the Shadow Health Secretary in 1989 and became the Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary in 1992. Two years later, he became the Shadow Foreign Secretary, a position he held until the 1997 election.

After Labour's landslide win, he entered the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary.

A Cabinet reshuffle after the 2001 Labour victory saw him replaced at the Foreign Office by Jack Straw, with Cook given the job of Leader of the Commons.

He resigned that position in the run up to the conflict in Iraq in protest against Blair's decision to go to war.

Since then he has been an outspoken critic of the Government's foreign policy from the backbench.

Cook's devotion to enhancing the role of Parliament as the leader of Commons made him a popular figure among backbench MPs, and his powerful resignation speech on the eve of war won him great respect from opponents of the military action.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott paid tributes to Cook.

"This is truly sad and tragic news. My thoughts are with Robin's family at this time and I offer them condolences on behalf of the whole Government. Robin was the greatest Parliamentarian of his generation. He also made an enormous contribution to British politics in Opposition and in Government. He will be sorely missed."

Chancellor Gordon Brown said the former Foreign Secretary would be mourned in every continent around the world. "I admired and valued Robin as a colleague and friend and as one of the greatest Parliamentarians of our time."