on a low turnout, it was regarded as a poor result. McTaggart declared that "it was the result we were looking for". Parliamentary activity Making his maiden speech on 10 July 1980 in an opposition debate on industry, McTaggart attacked the Conservative government's economic policy, claiming that non-intervention "fanned the flames of unemployment in Glasgow" and had caused the loss of 300 jobs each day. In November 1981 he supported an increased borrowing limit for British Shipbuilders, urging that it set up a fund to take on new apprentices. McTaggart was one of 33 Labour MPs to vote against the Government in a debate on the Falklands War in May 1982, defying party instructions to abstain. Boundary changes at the 1983 general election split the Glasgow Central seat four ways, and it constituted less than a quarter of the electorate of a new seat of the same name. McTaggart faced a reselection battle with Helen McElhone who was the MP for Glasgow Queen's Park which made up more than half of the new seat. He won a decisive victory at the selection contest held on 13 May 1983, just after the election had been called, and went on to win the seat by a 10,962 vote majority. In November 1985, McTaggart opposed televising proceedings in the House of Commons, but by March 1988 he had changed his mind and voted in favour. Labour Party politics McTaggart was sponsored by his union, the EETPU, which paid £600 to his Constituency Labour Party and 80% of his election expenses. The union leadership was strongly aligned with the right in internal Labour Party debates and its leader Frank Chapple supported Denis Healey in the Deputy Leadership election in 1981. When McTaggart voted for the left-wing candidate Tony Benn, his EETPU sponsorship was withdrawn. He appealed unsuccessfully against the decision. Initially a member of the Tribune Group, he was one of the founding members of the Socialist Campaign Group in November 1982, and in the same month spoke at a Glasgow meeting called by supporters of the Militant tendency opposing the expulsions of the members of the editorial board of Militant newspaper. He supported the left-wing team of Eric Heffer for Leader and Michael Meacher for Deputy Leader in the Leadership election in 1983. McTaggart was one of a group of some 30 Labour left-wingers who mounted a demonstration on the floor of the