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Officegate [lower-alpha 1] was a political scandal in Scotland surrounding the unregistered expenses of the then-First Minister of Scotland, Henry McLeish, in 2001. It was the first major scandal the Scottish Parliament had faced since its reincarnation two years prior in 1999. The scandal dominated McLeish's final months in office and resulted in his resignation.
In the 1987 General Election, McLeish was elected to Westminster to serve as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Central Fife, where he took control of offices on Hanover Court, Glenrothes. The offices were too big and he sublet parts of the first floor. However, McLeish failed to declare the income from the sub lets to the House of Common's register of interests as he had "forgot". [1] In early 2001, a newspaper reported that McLeish had received rent for 5 years from a solicitors firm, Digby Brown. Following the report, he registered the sub let with the House of Commons, however, Dominic Grieve, a Conservatives spokesman, later wrote to Elizabeth Filkin, the House of Commons Commissioner on Standards. [1] The issue then became dormant as McLeish ceased to be an MP after the 2001 general election. [1]
There were continuing claims he should resign, mainly from the Scottish National Party who claimed the issue questioned his integrity. McLeish rebutted the charges against him, claiming that the issue was "a muddle, not a fiddle". Despite appearing to have support from Scottish Labour and the Scottish Liberal Democrats, he resigned on 8 November. [2] He was replaced by Jack McConnell, who was elected unopposed to the leadership of Scottish Labour and was then elected First Minister by MSPs after securing the support of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. [3] [4] [5]
The first minister of Scotland, formally the First Minister and Keeper of the Scottish Seal, is the head of the Scottish Government and the keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. The first minister chairs the Scottish Cabinet and is primarily responsible for the formulation, development, and presentation of the Scottish Government's policies. Additional functions of the first minister include promoting and representing Scotland in an official capacity, at home and abroad.
Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester East for 32 years, from 1987 to 2019. He was the British Parliament's longest-serving British Asian MP.
George Foulkes, Baron Foulkes of Cumnock PC is a British politician and life peer who served as Minister of State for Scotland from 2001 to 2002. A member of the Scottish Labour Party and Co-operative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, formerly South Ayrshire, from 1979 to 2005. He was later a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), as one of the additional members for the Lothians region, from 2007 to 2011.
James Francis Murphy is a Scottish former politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2014 to 2015 and Secretary of State for Scotland from 2008 to 2010. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for East Renfrewshire, formerly Eastwood, from 1997 to 2015. He identifies as a social democrat and has expressed support for a foreign policy of Western interventionism. He has been described as being on the political right of the Labour Party.
John William MacDougall was a British Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Glenrothes from the 2005 general election until his death; he was first elected to the House of Commons for Central Fife in the 2001 general election.
Jack Wilson McConnell, Baron McConnell of Glenscorrodale, is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 2001 to 2007. McConnell served as the Minister for Finance from 1999 to 2000 and Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs from 2000 to 2001. He has been a Labour life peer in the House of Lords since 2010 and previously served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Motherwell and Wishaw from 1999 to 2011.
Henry Baird McLeish is a Scottish politician, author, academic and former professional footballer who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2000 to 2001. With a term of 1 year, 12 days, he is the shortest serving holder of that office. He served as the Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 2000 to 2001.
Glenrothes is a town situated in the heart of Fife, in east-central Scotland. It had a population of 39,277 in the 2011 census, making it the third largest settlement in Fife and the 18th most populous locality in Scotland. Glenrothes is the administrative capital of Fife, containing the headquarters of both Fife Council and Police Scotland Fife Division and is a major service centre within the area.
Catherine Mary Jamieson is a Scottish business director, currently a director at Kilmarnock Football Club and former politician. She served as the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 2000 to 2008. She previously served in the Scottish Executive as Minister for Justice from 2003 to 2007 and Minister for Education and Young People from 2001 to 2003. Jamieson was Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley from 1999 to 2011 and was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Kilmarnock and Loudoun from 2010 to 2015.
Scottish Labour, officially the Scottish Labour Party, is the part of the UK Labour Party active in Scotland. Ideologically social democratic and unionist, it holds 22 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 2 of 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons. It is represented by 262 of the 1,227 local councillors across Scotland. The Scottish Labour party has no separate Chief Whip at Westminster.
Central Fife was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality method of election. Also, however, it is one of nine constituencies in the Mid Scotland and Fife electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Christine May is a Scottish Labour Co-operative politician. She was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Central Fife constituency from 2003 to 2007.
Iain Cumming Gray is a Scottish politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2008 to 2011. He was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the East Lothian constituency from 2007 to 2021, having previously represented Edinburgh Pentlands from 1999 to 2003. A former aid worker and teacher of mathematics and physics, Gray was first elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 as MSP for the Edinburgh Pentlands constituency, which he lost to Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party David McLetchie in 2003. Gray was returned to Holyrood in 2007 as MSP for East Lothian. Following Wendy Alexander's resignation as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party in 2008, Gray stood at the subsequent leadership election, and was elected with a 57.8% share of the vote in the second round.
Angus MacKay is a Scottish politician who served as Minister for Finance and Local Government from 2000 to 2001. A member of the Scottish Labour Party, he was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Edinburgh South constituency from 1999 to 2003.
The first McConnell government was formed by Jack McConnell on 27 November 2001 during the 1st Scottish Parliament, following Henry McLeish's resignation as First Minister of Scotland as a consequence of the Officegate scandal. The first McConnell government was a continuation of the Labour–Liberal Democrat coalition that had existed under the previous McLeish and Dewar governments. It ended on 20 May 2003 following the 2003 election to the 2nd Scottish parliament, which saw McConnell returning to office as first minister to form a second government.
The 2008 Glenrothes by-election was a by-election held in Scotland on 6 November 2008 to elect a new Member of Parliament (MP) for the House of Commons constituency of Glenrothes in Fife, Scotland.
Henry McLeish's term as first minister of Scotland began on 26 October 2000 when he was formally sworn into office at the Court of Session. It followed the death of Donald Dewar. McLeish served as the second First Minister and his premiership is the shortest of any officeholder. His term was dominated by his financial scandal dubbed as Officegate. The scandal resulted in McLeish's resignation on 8 November 2001.
Jack McConnell's term as First Minister of Scotland began on 22 November 2001 when he was formally sworn into office at the Court of Session. It followed the resignation of Henry McLeish over the Officegate scandal. His term ended on 16 May 2007, following the defeat of the Scottish Labour Party in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, where the Scottish National Party formed a minority government.
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