Douglas Alexander was elected as the MP for Lothian East on Thursday 4 July with a majority of 13,265. He was appointed Minister of State for Trade Policy and Economic Security in the Department for Business and Trade on 6 July.
Douglas had previously served a Member of Parliament between 1997 and 2015. In 2001, he was appointed as a Minister for the first time and held various junior posts between then and 2005. Following the 2005 general election, Douglas was appointed Minister of State for Europe, attended Cabinet and was made a member of the Privy council. In 2006, he was appointed to serve jointly as both Secretary of State for Scotland and Secretary of State for Transport, and in 2007, when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, Douglas became Secretary of State for International Development.
After Labour lost the 2010 general election, Douglas served as Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and then Shadow Foreign Secretary. In October 2013, he was appointed by Labour Leader Ed Miliband as the party’s Chair of General Election Strategy. He was also a key Labour figure in the pro-UK Better Together campaign during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and represented the campaign in various public debates.
After leaving public office, Douglas became a Fisher Family Fellow at Harvard University where he served as a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He has also served as a visiting professor at New York University (Abu Dhabi) and King’s College London’s Policy Institute.
You can contact Douglas at:
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: www.facebook.com/douglas4eastlothian
Twitter: www.twitter.com/D_G_Alexander
