1. Douglas Garven Alexander was born on 26 October 1967 and is a British politician who has served as Minister of State for Trade Policy and Economic Security since 2024, having previously held the role from 2004 to 2005.
52 Facts About Douglas Alexander
1. 2.
Douglas Alexander has served as Minister of State in the Cabinet Office since 2025.
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Douglas Alexander was previously MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, formerly Paisley South, from 1997 to 2015 and served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Scottish Secretary, Transport Secretary and International Development Secretary in the cabinets of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
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Douglas Alexander was Minister of State for the Cabinet Office from 2002 to 2003.
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When Ed Miliband became the party's leader, Douglas Alexander was elected to the Shadow cabinet and was made the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
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Douglas Alexander held this position until a 2011 reshuffle, when he was appointed Shadow Foreign Secretary.
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In December 2022, Douglas 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.
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Douglas Alexander 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.
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Douglas Alexander attended his local comprehensive school Park Mains High School in Erskine, in Renfrewshire, from where he joined the Labour Party as a schoolboy in 1982.
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Douglas Alexander graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a first-class degree in 1990.
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In 1990, Douglas Alexander worked as a speech writer and parliamentary researcher for Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary Gordon Brown.
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Douglas Alexander returned to Edinburgh to study for an LLB at the University of Edinburgh, where he won the Novice Moot Trophy and graduated with distinction in 1993.
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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 Douglas Alexander received enough votes to push the Conservative candidate into third place.
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Douglas 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.
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At the 2010 General Election Douglas Alexander was re-elected for Paisley and Renfrewshire South with a majority of 13,232 votes.
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Douglas Alexander took a successful co-ordinating role in his party's campaign for the 2001 general election.
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Douglas Alexander was rewarded by Tony Blair and was appointed Minister of State for and Competitiveness at the Department of Trade and Industry in June 2001.
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In May 2002, Douglas Alexander was transferred to the Cabinet Office as Minister of State.
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In June 2003 Douglas 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.
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On 10 August 2006, Douglas 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.
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Douglas Alexander worked with police, Intelligence Agencies, the Airlines and the US Department of Homeland Security.
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Douglas 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.
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Douglas 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.
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Douglas Alexander 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.
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Douglas 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.
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Later in that year Douglas Alexander accepted the role as co-chair of David Miliband's campaign for the leadership of the Labour party.
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Douglas Alexander subsequently was Ed Miliband's chair of general election strategy for the Labour 2015 general election campaign.
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In September 2012 Douglas 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.
29.
Douglas 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".
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Douglas Alexander invited him to discuss the issue on his radio show.
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Douglas 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.
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In 2011, Douglas 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.
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On 29 June 2010, five years after the Make Poverty History March in Edinburgh, Douglas 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.
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On 12 October 2011, Douglas Alexander delivered the Andrew John Williamson Memorial Lecture, at Stirling University.
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Douglas 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.
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On 17 January 2013, in a speech to the foreign policy think-tank Chatham House, Douglas 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.
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On 3 May 2013, Douglas 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.
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Douglas Alexander has served as a Fellow in the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, and as a visiting professor at New York University.
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Douglas Alexander served as a visiting professor at King's College London's Policy Institute.
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In November 2015 Douglas Alexander started working as a senior advisor to Bono, helping secure investment to tackle global poverty.
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In March 2016 Douglas Alexander joined the Pinsent Masons law firm as a "strategic advisor".
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Douglas Alexander served as a Council Member on the European Council on Foreign Relations, a Trustee of the Royal United Services Institute, and Chair of the Programme Committee at The Ditchley Foundation.
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Douglas Alexander has written and presented programmes for BBC Radio 4 including: the documentary: "A Culture of Encounter", in which Douglas Alexander brought together experts and community organisations to explore the cultural, economic, and political polarising forces in society.
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In May 2022, Douglas Alexander authored and presented Connections which examined whether recent crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic and Russo-Ukrainian War, have helped bring people together or driven them apart.
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Douglas Alexander served as chair of the board of trustees for UNICEF UK from June 2018 to September 2020.
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Douglas Alexander stepped down as chair in September 2020 following accusations of bullying by then-executive director Sasha Deshmukh, although he had the support of the board.
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Douglas Alexander was a member of the University of Edinburgh Court, the university's highest governing body, and the General Council Business Committee and the Policy and Resources Committee.
48.
Douglas Alexander won the selection to stand for Labour in the constituency in February 2023.
49.
Douglas Alexander won the seat and was re-elected to Parliament for the first time as a Labour Co-op MP in July 2024.
50.
Douglas Alexander was appointed Minister of State for Trade Policy and Economic Security on 6 July and appointed Minister of State in the Cabinet Office on 10 February 2025.
51.
Douglas Alexander has written numerous pieces for publication in national newspapers in the UK and the USA including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and The Boston Globe.
52.
Douglas Alexander married Jacqueline Christian in 2000, and together they have a daughter and a son.