Margaret Curran

Curran was born in Glasgow, the daughter of Irish parents.[2] She was educated at Our Lady and St Francis School in Glasgow.

Curran attended the University of Glasgow, where she graduated with a degree in History and Economic History in 1981. She first became politically active in the Glasgow University Labour Club in the late-1970s, where she was associated with Johann Lamont and Sarah Boyack. She held several posts in Labour student politics, including secretary and vice-chair of Glasgow University Labour Club, and chair and secretary of the Scottish Organisation of Labour Students. She was involved in the unsuccessful campaign to elect Hortensia Allende as Rector of Glasgow University in 1977.

She was a community worker, and then a lecturer in community education at the University of Strathclyde. She and her husband Rab live in Glasgow with their two sons. She was Mohammad Sarwar's election agent at Glasgow Govan for the 1997 general election.

In 1999 Curran was elected to the new Scottish Parliament, and was promoted to a junior minister when Henry McLeish became First Minister and later became a member of the Scottish Executive.[3] She served as convenor of the Social Inclusion committee, then was promoted to Deputy Minister for Social Justice. She then rose to become minister in that portfolio, which later changed to Minister for Communities, introducing the Homelessness (Scotland) Bill[4] in September 2002. She held the position of Minister for Parliamentary Business from 2004 until 2007.

She was re-elected comfortably in 2003 and again in 2007. Given the Scottish Labour Party's losses in that later election, she was widely viewed as a popular potential successor to Jack McConnell as its leader, but decided not to stand against Wendy Alexander. Curran pledged her support to Iain Gray who was standing against Cathy Jamieson and Andy Kerr. Iain Gray was voted Scottish Labour Party Leader and appointed Curran to manage the party's 2011 election manifesto.[5] She stood down as MSP for Glasgow Baillieston at the 2011 Scottish election.

At the 2010 general election, Curran regained Glasgow East for Labour from the Scottish National Party. After her electoral victory was announced, she walked out with the other candidates from the platform, refusing to make a speech whilst sharing the platform with the British National Party candidate. From 2010–11, she was Shadow Minister for Disabled People.[12][13]

On 7 October 2011, in a Shadow Cabinet reshuffle, Labour Party leader Ed Miliband sacked Ann McKechin and appointed Curran as her replacement for Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland.[5] Willie Bain, then-MP for Glasgow North East, also became Curran's new deputy as Shadow Scotland Office Minister, replacing Tom Greatrex.[14]

For the year 2013–14, Curran was criticised for claiming more than £180,000 in expenses on top of her salary, including more than £19,000 on accommodation and nearly £16,000 on travel (as listed on the Independent Parliamentary Standards authority website).

At the 2015 general election, she lost her seat to Natalie McGarry of the Scottish National Party. This was a landslide defeat for Scottish Labour; who lost forty of the forty-one seats they were defending, and were reduced to a single MP at Westminster, with the SNP elected in 56 of Scotland's 59 seats. With many veteran Labour politicians losing their seats, including: then-Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander and then-Scottish Labour Party Leader, Jim Murphy. Presenting speeches following their constituency's declaration, Curran declined to speak following the announcement of her own defeat.

Curran was known to have a particularly difficult relationship with SNP leader, Alex Salmond. In 2012, Curran accused Salmond and his government of having "“culture of casual dishonesty"[15], and suggested his "blokeish attitude" made him a liability among women in Scotland during the Scottish independence referendum campaign. [16] In 2011 she said that were Salmond to be killed by being run over by a bus that she would not be interested in finding out who the driver was. [17] In 2014 she dismissed Salmonds appeal to female voters, saying "Women will see through his cynical attempts to win them over" and described his speech as "drivel". [18] Speaking about a work programme in Dundee, Curran stated "I think Alex Salmond should apologise to the people of Dundee" as only 15% of participants had proceeded to find a job.[19]

In 2014, she wrote an article on Buzzfeed called "Ten SNP Fails Since 2007" where she writes "Alex Salmond steps down as First Minister today. He's made a significant impact on Scottish politics, but we can't forget his Government's record. Here are ten SNP fails that have happened on his watch." [20]

• Margaret Curran MSP Scottish Labour website
• Scottish Parliament biography
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou