Douglas Alexander

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 Scottish Labour Party 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[14]. This brought him to the attention of party leader Tony Blair, and shortly after his defeat by the SNP he was welcomed at the Scottish Labour Party 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.

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%[15] share of the vote compared to 22.9%[16] achieved during the by election.

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 June 2001 he was returned to Westminster with an increased majority[17]. Following the General Election in May 2005 Douglas was re-elected, becoming MP for the new constituency of Paisley and Renfrewshire South, as well as promoted to Minister of State for Europe attending Cabinet at the Foreign Office. At the 2010 General Election Alexander was successfully re-elected as MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South with a majority of 13,232 votes[18]. He lost his seat to 20-year-old Mhairi Black of the Scottish National Party at the General Election on 8 May 2015.

Alexander took a successful co-ordinating role in his party's campaign for the 2001 general election. He was rewarded by Tony Blair and was appointed as the Minister of State with responsibility for "e-commerce and competitiveness" at the Department of Trade and Industry in June 2001. In May 2002, Alexander was transferred to the Cabinet Office as Minister of State.[19]

In June 2003 Alexander was promoted to Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and in September 2004 was moved to Minister of State for Trade at both the Department of Trade and Industry and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

After the 2005 general election, he was given the role of Minister of State for Europe, part of the Foreign Office, with special provision to attend Cabinet. On 7 June 2005, he was made a Member of the Privy Council. On 5 May 2006 he was appointed Secretary of State for Transport and, simultaneously, Secretary of State for Scotland, replacing Alistair Darling. During his time as Scottish Secretary, Alexander oversaw the running of the 2007 Scottish Parliament election. Following Gordon Brown's appointment as Prime Minister on 27 June 2007, he appointed Douglas Alexander as Secretary of State for International Development.

Alexander took a central role in the first Scottish Parliament elections in 1999 which saw Donald Dewar elected as the first First Minister of Scotland. Alexander is credited with devising the strategy for the campaign, including the successful ‘Divorce is an Expensive Business’ messaging unveiled at the Scottish Labour Party Conference in Glasgow (March 1999)[20]. Labour secured 56 seats under the Proportional Representation system, nine short of an overall majority, and agreed to enter a coalition with the 17-strong Liberal Democrats to for the first Government in the newly established Scottish Parliament[21]. Alexander also coordinated Labour’s successful 2001 General Election Campaign which resulted in another Labour landslide and the Party winning 413 of the 659 seats available: securing a 167 seat majority in the House of Commons[22]. Alexander was appointed by Tony Blair to Labour’s National Executive Committee in 2003 and was appointed by Gordon Brown to be Labour’s General Election Coordinator for the 2010 general election campaign. This campaign saw the first televised Leaders’ debates[23], and Alexander was part of the core team preparing Gordon Brown for each debate, as well as devising the strategy and messaging for the campaign across the UK which would ultimately deny David Cameron’s Conservatives a Majority in May 2010[24]. Later in that year Alexander accepted the role as Co-Chair of David Miliband's campaign for the leadership of the Labour party.[25][26] He subsequently was Ed Miliband's chair of general election strategy for the Labour 2015 general election campaign.[25][27]

In September 2012 Alexander gave an interview to the Evening Standard newspaper criticising Ken Livingstone's election campaign and calling out anti-Semitic comments made by the former London Mayor. He said Livingstone paid the "deserved price" when he lost the London mayoral election.[28]. Alexander said: “Ken’s campaign too often looked like the past rather than the future and when I saw his remarks about the Jewish community in London in particular, I didn’t just think it was ill-advised, I thought it was wrong.”[29] Livingstone hit back on Twitter, saying the Shadow Foreign Secretary "represents a failed New Labour project that lost millions of votes". He also invited him to discuss the issue on his radio show.[30]

Alexander has been a vocal critic of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party and is a supporting member of one of the oldest socialist societies affiliated to the Party: the Jewish Labour Movement. In 2011, Alexander was among the first to publicly condemn Paul Flynn, the Labour MP for Newport West for his comments regarding the religion of Britain's first Jewish ambassador to Israel[31]. Alexander, who at the time was serving as Labour's Shadow Foreign Secretary, said in response to Flynn's comments about Ambassador Matthew Gould that: "The faith of any British diplomat is irrelevant to their capability to their job. To make suggestions otherwise is wrong and offensive"[32].

On 29 June 2010, five years after the Make Poverty History March in Edinburgh, Alexander gave a speech to the Labour Campaign for International Development about the progress made towards achieving the Gleneagles Summit Goals and on the future of International Development[33].

On 12 October 2011, Alexander delivered the Andrew John Williamson Memorial Lecture, at Stirling University. In his lecture entitled: "A Better Nation?" A Personal Reflection on Scotland's Future. Alexander explored the difference between the political ideologies of nationalism and socialism and outlined a strategy for Scottish Labour to reclaim the mantel of devolution and successfully defeat the campaign for Scottish separation[34].

On 17 January 2013 in a speech to the foreign policy think-tank Chatham House, Alexander outlined his support for the UK to remain a full member state of the European Union but would not support a federal United States of Europe.[35]

On 3 May 2013, Alexander delivered the 4th Judith Hart Memorial Lecture for which he received a lot of media attention for addressing the issue of Scottish Independence ahead of the referendum to be held the following year[36]. Alexander paid tribute to Judith Hart’s “strong sense of solidarity” advocating for Scotland to vote to remain part of the United Kingdom, saying: “Walking away from others has never been our way – walking with others has been our heritage and to my mind should be our future.”[37]

Alexander voluntarily made a payment to the Parliamentary Fees Office to reduce the total sum claimed for his constituency home allowance over a three-year period.[38][39]