Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has led tributes to former Mid Scotland and Fife MEP Alex Falconer, who died this week.
Born in Dundee, Mr Falconer was a former foundry worker and served nine years in the Royal Navy before going on to work as an insulator at Rosyth dockyard.
He became a Transport and General Workers Union shop steward and chairman of Fife Federation of Trades Councils.
He was then elected as Member of European Parliament for Mid-Scotland and Fife, taking the seat from the Tories in 1984 and then continuing to increase his majority until his retirement in 1999.
On the left of the Labour Party, he was a pioneering campaigner on environmental issues. He strongly opposed the poll tax in the 1980s and led the campaign against privatisation of Scottish Water.
Mr Falconer was one of the key figures in the left-wing organisation the Campaign for Socialism within the Scottish Labour Party.
Mr Falconer shared an office with Mr Brown when they were parliamentarians and they remained good friends.
Mr Brown said: ”Alex Falconer was my friend… Throughout his life he never stopped caring about people and standing up for fairness and against injustice wherever he saw it.
”Today I am thinking of his wife Margaret and his family.”
After retiring as an MEP, Mr Falconer was involved with Kingseat Community Council and the Federation of Community Councils.
Fife Council leader Alex Rowley said: ”Alex was a man of deep principle and conviction who inspired and supported young people who took an interest in politics.”