[Legion]

BBC News

Former Cabinet minister Robin Cook, 59, has died after collapsing while hill walking in north-west Scotland.

It is believed he was taken ill while walking with his wife Gaynor near the summit of Ben Stack, at around 1420 BST, Northern Constabulary said.

Mr Cook was flown by coastguard helicopter to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, where he died on Saturday evening, police said.

He quit as Commons leader in March 2003, in protest over the war in Iraq.

Following Mr Cook's death, former friends and colleagues paid tribute to him.

Current Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, said: "He was the greatest Parliamentarian of his generation and a very fine foreign secretary."

Former Home Secretary David Blunkett said: "This is a terrible tragedy, not just for those who knew and cared for him, but also for political life in this country, which will be all the poorer."

Keen walker

RAF Kinloss Assistant controller Tom Docherty, said the centre had received a call about a "collapsed male walker".

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

Following Mr Cook's death, a report will be prepared for the Procurator Fiscal, as is usual in such circumstances.

The Livingston MP, who lived in Edinburgh, was a keen walker and cyclist and a keen follower of horse racing.

Mr Cook, who first became an MP for Edinburgh Central in 1974, was appointed the shadow health secretary in 1989 and became the shadow trade and industry secretary in 1992.

In 1994, 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 Mr Cook instead given the job of Leader of the Commons.

He resigned that position in the lead-up to the conflict in Iraq in protest over Tony Blair's decision to go to war.

He had been an outspoken critic of the government's foreign policy from the backbench.

I'll admit I'm saddened by this. I was quite fond of the guy. Not just because he was one of the only backbenchers to show a bit of backbone over the Iraq War.

Plus he just seemed to be generally a nice guy. I'll miss him.