Richard Baker | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for Glenrothes and Mid Fife | |
Assumed office 4 July 2024 | |
Preceded by | Peter Grant |
Majority | 2,954 (8.17%) |
Member of Scottish Parliament for North East Scotland | |
In office 1 May 2003 –11 January 2016 | |
Succeeded by | Lesley Brennan |
Personal details | |
Born | Edinburgh,Scotland | 29 May 1974
Political party | Scottish Labour |
Spouse | Claire Baker |
Alma mater | University of Aberdeen |
Richard James Baker (born 29 May 1974) is a Scottish Labour politician who has served as the Member of Parliament for Glenrothes and Mid Fife since 2024. [1] Baker was previously a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the North East Scotland region.
Baker was born in Edinburgh to an Episcopalian priest father and English teacher mother,and is godson to the then Episcopalian Bishop of Aberdeen,Bruce Cameron. He was educated at the independent St. Bees School in Cumbria and at Aberdeen University. [2] He was the elected president of the National Union of Students Scotland from 1998 till 2000 and before that the senior vice-president (an elected,full-time sabbatical officer post) at the University of Aberdeen students' representative council (now Aberdeen University Students' Association) in the academic year 1995/96. He is a former Scottish press officer of Help the Aged. Baker is a member of Unite the Union and the Co-operative Party.[ citation needed ]
He was first elected in the 2003 Scottish Parliament election,when he was the youngest sitting MSP. He is a former member of Labour's Shadow Cabinet in the Scottish Parliament having served as the Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance.
In the early part of 2014,he was selected as the Labour candidate for Aberdeen North in the 2015 UK general election,after current MP Frank Doran announced his retirement. However,he lost in the election to Scottish National Party candidate Kirsty Blackman. [3]
In June 2015,Baker announced he would stand in the 2015 Scottish Labour Party deputy leadership election. [4] When the result was announced,he had come third of the three candidates in a close contest with 30% of the vote. [5]
In September 2015,Baker announced he would be stepping down from the parliament at the 2016 election. [6] He instead stood down early in January 2016 to take up a job with Age Scotland. As a list MSP,his seat was taken up by the next person on the Labour list for the North East Scotland region,Lesley Brennan. [7]
In July 2024,he was elected Member of Parliament for the new constituency of Glenrothes and Mid Fife in the United Kingdom general election. [8]
Party | Vote share | Change since 2019 |
---|---|---|
Labour | 44.3% | +16.9% |
Scottish National Party | 36.1% | -13.4% |
Reform UK | 9.8% | +6.8% |
Conservative | 5.5% | -9.8% |
Liberal Democrat | 4.4% | - |
Others | - | - |
Baker is married to Claire Brennan-Baker MSP and they have one daughter.
Claire became an MSP after the 2007 election,representing the Mid Scotland and Fife region.
Annabelle Janet Ewing is a Scottish politician and lawyer who has served as Deputy Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament,alongside Liam McArthur,since May 2021. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP),she has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Cowdenbeath constituency since 2016,having previously been an MSP for the Mid Scotland and Fife region from 2011 to 2016.
Robert Hardie Bruce Crawford is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who served as Cabinet Secretary for Parliamentary Business and Government Strategy from 2011 to 2012,having held the junior ministerial position of Minister for Parliamentary Business from 2007 to 2011. Crawford served as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Stirling from 2007 to 2021,having previously represented the Mid Scotland and Fife region 1999–2007.
North East Scotland is one of the eight electoral regions of the Scottish Parliament which were created in 1999. Ten of the parliament's 73 first past the post constituencies are sub-divisions of the region and it elects seven of the 56 additional-member Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs). Thus it elects a total of 17 MSPs.
Patricia Marwick is a Scottish politician who served as Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament from 2011 to 2016. She was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) from 1999 to 2016. Elected as a member of the Scottish National Party (SNP),she suspended her membership in 2011 upon her election as presiding officer,following the tradition of the presiding officer being nonpartisan.
Glenrothes is a constituency in Scotland represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005.
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 37 of 57 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.
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.
Maureen Elizabeth Watt is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician and former Minister for Mental Health in the Scottish Government. She was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) representing the constituency of Aberdeen South and North Kincardine from 2011 to 2021 when she retired,having previously served as a regional member for North East Scotland from 2006 until 2011.
The 2011 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday,5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament.
Claire Josephine Baker is a Scottish Labour politician who has served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Mid Scotland and Fife region since 2007.
James Anthony Kelly is a Scottish politician who has served as General Secretary of the Scottish Labour Party since 2021. He was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow region between 2016 and 2021,having previously been MSP for Rutherglen from 2007 to 2016.
This is a list of members (MSPs) returned to the fourth Scottish Parliament at the 2011 general election. Of the 129 MSPs,73 were elected from first past the post constituencies with a further 56 members being returned from eight regions,each electing seven MSPs as a form of mixed member proportional representation.
Kezia Alexandra Ross Dugdale is a Scottish former politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2015 to 2017. A former member of the Scottish Labour Party and Co-operative Party,she was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Lothian region from 2011 to 2019.
Alexander Andrew Penman Rowley is a Scottish politician who served as Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2015 to 2017 and acting leader of the party from August to November 2017. He has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) since 2014,firstly for the Cowdenbeath constituency and the Mid Scotland and Fife region since 2016. He has been described as being on the political left of the party.
Kirsty Blackman is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aberdeen North since 2015.
Jennifer Madeleine Gilruth is a Scottish politician who has served as the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills since 2023. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP),she has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Mid Fife and Glenrothes since 2016.
Maurice Charles Golden is a Scottish Conservative politician. He has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the North East Scotland region since the May 2021 Scottish Parliament election,after having previously been elected in 2016 for West Scotland. Golden was the Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Economy,Fair Work and Culture until May 2021. Golden was also previously Chief Whip and Business Manager.
Dean Lockhart is a Scottish former politician who was the convener of the net zero,energy and transport committee in the Scottish Parliament from 2021 to 2022. A member of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party,he was a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Mid Scotland and Fife region from 2016 to 2022.
William Archibald Bowman is a Scottish Conservative Party politician who served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the North East Scotland region from December 2016 until he stood down at the 2021 election.
James Neale Hanvey is a politician who served as the Leader of the Alba Party in the House of Commons from 2021 to 2024,and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath from 2019 to 2024.