Douglas Alexander

Douglas Garven Alexander (born 26 October 1967) is a Scottish Labour politician who has served as Secretary of State for Scotland since 5 September 2025, having previously held the role from 2006 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Lothian East since 2024. He was previously MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, formerly Paisley South, from 1997 to 2015 and served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Transport Secretary and International Development Secretary in the cabinets of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Alexander was first elected at the 1997 Paisley South by-election. In 2001, he was appointed by Tony Blair as Minister of State for e-Commerce and Competitiveness in the Department of Trade and Industry. 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. Following the 2005 general election, he was appointed Minister of State for Europe and made a member of the Privy Council. During this period, he started attending cabinet. In 2006, he 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, he lost his seat to 20 year-old Mhairi Black of the Scottish National Party, in what was one of the worst results for Labour; with forty seats lost to the SNP nationwide. In December 2022, Alexander sought out a return to Parliament by applying to be Labour's parliamentary candidate for East Lothian, held by the Alba Party's Kenny MacAskill. He won the selection to stand for the Labour and Co-operative parties in the constituency in February 2023 and was elected as the MP for the redrawn Lothian East constituency in July 2024.