Sir Brian Harold Donohoe (born 10 September 1948) is a former British Labour politician and former trade union official,who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Central Ayrshire from 2005 until losing his seat in 2015. Prior to constituency boundary changes in 2005,he was MP for Cunninghame South and was first elected in 1992.
He was an apprentice fitter and turner at the Ailsa Shipyard in Troon from 1965, before becoming a draughtsman in 1969. In 1977, he spent a few months as an engineer at the Hunterston nuclear power plant, before joining ICI Organics Division as a draughtsman later in the year.
Donohoe was elected to the House of Commons at the 1992 general election for the Cunninghame South constituency after the retirement of the previous Labour MP David Lambie. Donohoe held the seat with a majority of 10,680 votes, and continued as the MP until 2015, when he was defeated at the general election by Philippa Whitford of the Scottish National Party by 13,589 votes. He made his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 13 May 1992.[1] In parliament he served as a member of the TransportSelect committee, in its various forms, from 1993 until 2005. He has been a member of the Administration Select Committee since the 2005 general election.
In November 2008, Donohoe was one of eighteen MPs who signed a Commons motion backing a Team GB football team at the 2012 London Olympic Games, saying football "should not be any different from other competing sports and our young talent should be allowed to show their skills on the world stage". The football governing bodies of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are all opposed to a Great Britain team, fearing it would stop them competing as individual nations in future tournaments.
In February 2013, Cooper voted against the second reading of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013.[2] Subsequently, in May 2013 the MP voted against the bill’s third and final reading,[3] opposing the legalisation of same-sex marriage within England and Wales.
Donohoe's seat of Cunninghame South was abolished, and between 2005 and 2015 he represented the redrawn seat of Ayrshire Central.
In the 2015 United Kingdom general election Donohoe lost his Central Ayrshire seat to Philippa Whitford of the SNP by a margin of 13,589 votes. After his defeat, Donohoe said that he was "disappointed" to lose but that there was a silver lining: "I'm of an age where I can now turn round with the greatest delight and tell people to "fuck off!" which I haven't been able to do for a hell of a long time in both my trade union life and also in this one. You have to take all sorts coming through the door and be kind, considerate and generous with your time and sometimes you wonder why. But at the end of it you're there and I've always made the pledge as an MP that I wasn't just there to represent the people who voted for me, I was there to help."[4]
After the Chilcot Report investigating the Iraq War was released, Donohoe stated he was "not convinced" it gave any fresh insight into the controversial decision to invade Iraq. Donohoe had voted for the invasion, but a year later he said he would have voted against had he known Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction.[5]
Ann Clwyd Roberts was a Welsh Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Cynon Valley for 35 years, from 1984 until 2019. Although she had intended to stand down in 2015, she was re-elected in that year's general election and in 2017 before standing down in 2019. Clwyd is the longest-serving female MP for a Welsh constituency.
Sir David Anthony Crausby is a British Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolton North East from 1997 to 2019.
Frank Doran was a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aberdeen South from 1987 to 1992, when he lost his seat. He was re-elected in 1997 to Aberdeen Central, and most recently represented Aberdeen North. He was the husband of former Labour MP Dame Joan Ruddock.
Sandra Currie Osborne is a Scottish Labour politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock from the 2005 to 2015 general elections. She was first elected as MP for the Ayr constituency in 1997, and resigned from a government job in 2003 over the Iraq War. She was a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee from 2005 to 2010 and again from 2013. She was a member of the Defence Select Committee 2010-13 and was a member of the Council of Europe.
Roger Duncan Godsiff is a British former politician who served as the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) from 1992 to 2019, for the seats of Birmingham Small Heath, Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath, and Birmingham Hall Green.
Philip Roy Gallie was a British Conservative Party politician. He served in the British House of Commons as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayr from 1992 to 1997, and then as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the South of Scotland region from 1999 to 2007. He also held prominent offices within the Scottish Conservative Party.
Allan Wilson is a former Scottish Labour Party politician. He was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Cunninghame North constituency, a seat which he held from the inaugural Scottish Parliament general election in 1999 until his defeat at the 2007 election.
North Ayrshire and Arran is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in the south-west of Scotland within the North Ayrshire council area. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post voting system of voting.
Central Ayrshire is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in the south-west of Scotland within the North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire council areas. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post system of voting.
Kilmarnock and Loudoun is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP), using the first-past-the-post voting system.
Kathryn Sloan Clark, Baroness Clark of Kilwinning, is a British politician and life peer who has served as a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the West Scotland region since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she was Member of Parliament (MP) for North Ayrshire and Arran from 2005 to 2015.
Bute and Northern Ayrshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1983. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post voting system.
Cunninghame North was a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1983 until 2005. Thereafter, it was largely replaced by North Ayrshire and Arran. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) using the first-past-the-post voting system.
Cunninghame North is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the council area of North Ayrshire. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It is also one of ten constituencies in the West Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to the ten constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Cunninghame South is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the council area of North Ayrshire. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election, and is one of ten constituencies in the West Scotland electoral region. The regions elects seven additional members, in addition to the ten constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
The 1929 Kilmarnock by-election was a by-election held on 27 September 1929 for the British House of Commons constituency of Kilmarnock in Ayrshire.
The 1946 Kilmarnock by-election was a by-election held on 5 December 1946 for the British House of Commons constituency of Kilmarnock in Ayrshire.
Alan Brown is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kilmarnock and Loudoun from 2015 until 2024. Brown previously served as the SNP spokesperson on Energy Security and Net Zero (2022–2023), Energy and Climate Change (2020–2022), Transport (2017–2020) and Infrastructure and Energy (2017–2018) in the House of Commons.
Philippa Whitford is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician and a breast surgeon. Originally from Northern Ireland, she was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Central Ayrshire in May 2015 and was re-elected in 2017 and 2019. Whitford stood down at the 2024 general election. She previously served as the SNP Spokesperson for Scotland from December 2022 to September 2023.
Lillian Jones is a Scottish Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kilmarnock and Loudoun since 2024. Prior to being elected as an MP in July 2024, Jones served as a councillor for the Kilmarnock West and Crosshouse ward within East Ayrshire Council from 3 May 2012 until her resignation on 2 September 2024, as well as working within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
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