Douglas Alexander

Douglas Garven Alexander (born 26 October 1967) is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, previously Paisley South, from 1997 until his defeat in 2015.

During this time, he served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Scottish Secretary, Transport Secretary and International Development Secretary in the Cabinet under Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

He subsequently served in Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Shadow Foreign Secretary.

Alexander attended his local comprehensive school Park Mains High School in Erskine, also in Renfrewshire, from where he joined the Labour Party as a schoolboy in 1982.

In 1984 he won a Scottish scholarship to attend Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific in Canada, where he gained the International Baccalaureate Diploma, returning to Scotland to study politics and modern history at the University of Edinburgh.

He spent 1988/89, the third of his four undergraduate years, at the University of Pennsylvania as part of the exchange scheme between the two universities.

When studying in America, he worked for Michael Dukakis during the 1988 American presidential election campaign, and also worked for a Democratic senator in Washington DC.

He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a first-class degree in 1990.

In 1990, Douglas worked as a speech writer and parliamentary researcher for Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary Gordon Brown.

He returned to Edinburgh to study for an LLB at the University of Edinburgh, where he won the Novice Moot Trophy and graduated with distinction in 1993.

He then qualified as a Scottish solicitor.

On qualifying as a solicitor he worked for a firm of solicitors in Edinburgh that provided legal services to Trade Union members and specialised in industrial injury cases.

Whilst still studying in 1995 and with friends in the local Constituency Labour Party and the backing of his mentor shadow chancellor Gordon Brown, he was selected to be The Labour Party in Scotland candidate at the Perth and Kinross by-election caused by the death of the Conservative MP Nicholas Fairbairn.

The by-election in the highly volatile Tory seat of Perth and Kinross came in the middle of the John Major government and was won by Roseanna Cunningham of the Scottish National Party, but Alexander received enough votes to push the Conservative candidate into third place.

It was a seat where Labour had never previously done particularly well, and the result, which saw Labour overtake the Conservatives and move up to second place, broke several post war election records.

This brought him to the attention of party leader Tony Blair, and shortly after his defeat by the SNP he was welcomed at The Labour Party in Scotland Conference in the Eden Court Theatre in Inverness where he spoke immediately before Blair in the critical debate on abolition of Clause 4.4 of the Labour Party Constitution.

Alexander was first elected to Parliament in the Paisley South by-election in 1997.

When the Perth and Kinross constituency was abolished, Alexander was chosen to be the Labour candidate in the newly drawn Perth constituency at the 1997 general election.

Once again Labour achieved a further swing with Alexander securing 24.8% share of the vote compared to 22.9% achieved during the by election, though pushed into third place.

On 28 July 1997, Gordon McMaster, the Labour Member of Parliament for Paisley South, committed suicide.

Alexander, who grew up in Renfrewshire, was chosen to contest the by-election and he was duly elected to serve as the Member of Parliament for Paisley South on 6 November 1997.

In 2001, he was appointed by Tony Blair as Minister of State for e-Commerce and Competitiveness in the Department of Trade and Industry.

In June 2001 he was returned to Westminster with an increased majority.

He was Minister of State for the Cabinet Office from 2002 to 2003.

In 2003, he was promoted to Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

In 2004, he was appointed Minister of State for Trade, serving jointly in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and in the Department of Trade and Industry.

At the 2005 general election, the Paisley South constituency was abolished and Alexander was elected to represent its successor seat of Paisley and Renfrewshire South.

Following the election, Alexander was appointed Minister of State for Europe.

During this period, Alexander attended Cabinet and was made a member of the Privy council.

In 2006, Alexander was appointed to serve jointly as both Secretary of State for Scotland and Secretary of State for Transport.

In 2007, when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, he appointed Alexander as Secretary of State for International Development.

After Labour lost the 2010 general election Alexander co-chaired David Miliband's leadership campaign.

When Ed Miliband became the party's leader, Alexander was elected to the Shadow cabinet and was made the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

He held this position until a 2011 reshuffle, when he was appointed Shadow Foreign Secretary.

In October 2013, he was appointed by Miliband as the party's Chair of General Election Strategy.

In 2015, his was among the 40 seats lost by Labour in Scotland.

In December 2022, Alexander sought out a return to parliament by applying to be Labour’s parliamentary candidate for East Lothian in the next general election, the party’s #1 target seat in Scotland, which is currently held by the Alba Party’s Kenny MacAskill, who was elected for the SNP.

He won the selection to stand for Labour in the constituency in February 2023.

Alexander was born in Glasgow, the son of Joyce O. Alexander and Douglas N. Alexander, a Church of Scotland minister.

Much of his childhood was spent in Bishopton in Renfrewshire.