Blair McDougall is a Scottish Labour Party politician and former political adviser who has served as the Member of Parliament for East Renfrewshire since 2024. He is best known as head strategist to the Better Together campaign during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.[1][2]
Blair McDougall | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2024 | |
| Member of Parliament for East Renfrewshire | |
| Assumed office 4 July 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Kirsten Oswald |
| Majority | 8,421 (16.8%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Scotland, United Kingdom |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | University of Glasgow |
Career
editHe was educated at the University of Glasgow, where as chair of the Labour Club he was Ross Kemp's campaign manager during the 1999 Rectorial election.[3]
He went on to serve as chair of Scottish Labour Students from 2001 to 2003 before becoming a special adviser to Ian McCartney, Minister for Trade, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and James Purnell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport in the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.[4]
In 2006 he took the post of Youth Representative on Labour's National Executive Committee.[4]
Following Labour's defeat in the 2010 general election, McDougall coordinated David Miliband's unsuccessful campaign for the party leadership. He became Campaign Director of Better Together in 2012.[5] After the No vote in the referendum on 18 September 2014, McDougall explained a key element of success had been regular and rigorous voter research and message testing.[6]
In 2014, he was appointed to an advisory role in Jim Murphy's successful campaign for the Scottish Labour leadership.[7] Murphy subsequently lost his seat to the SNP in the 2015 general election.[8]
In April 2017, McDougall was confirmed as the Scottish Labour candidate for Murphy's former constituency of East Renfrewshire in the 2017 general election.[8][9] He came third in that election, with 26.7% of the vote, a fall in the Labour vote of over 7 points as compared with the 2015 election, in which Murphy came second with 34% of the vote.[10]
In January 2020, Labour MP Jess Phillips hired McDougall as Scotland adviser for her unsuccessful leadership campaign.[5]
McDougall announced in July 2023 that he was running to be the Labour candidate for East Renfrewshire at the 2024 United Kingdom general election.[11] [12][13] He was elected as MP for East Renfrewshire after beating incumbent Kirsten Oswald.
According to his register of members interests, McDougall worked "as a consultant delivering international governance aid programmes for democratic activists in Belarus, Kosovo and Serbia", on behalf of the National Democratic Institute from February to April 2024. He also worked as a consultant for the East West Management Institute, based in Georgia, USA.[14]
McDougall is the chair of the Stop Uyghur Genocide Charity.[14]
Personal life
editMcDougall is married to Mary and has two children.[15]
References
edit- ^ Young, Gregor (5 October 2021). "Better Together chief accused of 'bullsh*t' in pensions row". The National.
- ^ "No one is as well acquainted with 'bullsh*t' as Better Together's Blair McDougall". Business for Scotland. 5 October 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
- ^ "Grannie competes with EastEnders hardman for university rector's post". The Herald. 2 February 1999.
- ^ a b Pike, Joe (2015). Project Fear: How an Unlikely Alliance Left a Kingdom United but a Country Divided. Biteback Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84954-995-0.
- ^ a b The Jouker (14 January 2020). "Jess Phillips hires Better Together boss as Scotland adviser". The Scotsman.
- ^ Datoo, Siraj (22 September 2014). "Better Together Campaign Chief: We Would Have Struggled To Win Without 'Scaremongering'". BuzzFeed.
- ^ "Blair McDougall lands Jim Murphy advisor role". The Scotsman. 31 October 2014. Archived from the original on 19 August 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
- ^ a b "Better Together chief Blair McDougall to stand for election". The Scotsman. 26 April 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
- ^ Green, Chris (26 April 2017). "Better Together chief named as Labour election candidate". inews.co.uk.
- ^ "It's a win for the Conservatives Paul Masterton - and a resounding one at that!". Glasgow World. 9 June 2017. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
- ^ Morrison, Hamish (26 July 2023). "Ex-Better Together chief in running to be Labour MP". The National.
- ^ Boothman, John (30 July 2023). "Former Better Together leader launches bid to be Labour MP". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 30 July 2023.
- ^ "Former Better Together chief Blair McDougall selected as Scottish Labour election candidate". Retrieved 28 November 2023.
- ^ a b "Register of Members' Interests - Blair McDougall". parliament.uk.
- ^ Simons, Ned (14 October 2014). "'I Knew We Had Won Before Ballot Boxes Started To Be Opened'". HuffPost UK.
External links
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