Perth and Kinross 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 IV 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% share of the vote compared to 22.9% achieved during the
1995 by-election, though pushed into third place.
Member of Parliament 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 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. Following the general election in May 2005 Alexander 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 re-elected for Paisley and Renfrewshire South with a majority of 13,232 votes. He lost his seat to 20-year-old
Mhairi Black of the
Scottish National Party at the general election on 8 May 2015 with a swing against him of 26.9%.
Minister of state 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
Minister of State for 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. As Minister of State for the Cabinet Office, Alexander oversaw the work of the government's Strategy Unit, the Central Office of Information, and the
Civil Service. 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.
Cabinet minister Following 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. During the United Kingdom's
Presidency of the Council of the European Union, he contributed directly to successful negotiations on agreement of the
Multiannual Financial Framework. 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. On 10 August 2006, Alexander was helicoptered by the
Royal Air Force from Scotland to London to join Home Secretary
John Reid, in leading the UK Government's response to the
2006 transatlantic aircraft plot and attend meetings of
COBRA, the government emergencies committee. He worked with police, Intelligence Agencies, the Airlines and the
US Department of Homeland Security. 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. During this time Alexander served as a governor of the
World Bank, the
African Development Bank, the
Inter-American Development Bank the
Caribbean Development Bank, and the
Asian Development Bank.
Election campaign roles 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 Labour Party in Scotland Conference in Glasgow (March 1999). 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 form the first Government in the newly established
Scottish Parliament. 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. 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, 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. Later in that year Alexander accepted the role as co-chair of
David Miliband's campaign for the
leadership of the Labour party. He subsequently was
Ed Miliband's chair of general election strategy for the Labour
2015 general election campaign.
Opposition to antisemitism 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. 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". 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. 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. 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".
Public speeches 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. 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. 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. 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. 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".
Expenses controversy During the
2009 MP expenses scandal, Alexander was one of three Labour ministers who "quietly repaid more than £50,000 in expenses". It emerged he had repaid more than £12,000 that he had previously claimed in expenses on his taxpayer-funded second home while also receiving income from a tenant at the same home. This represented double-funding for his second home and was against the expenses rules. ==Career outside Parliament==