Wendy Alexander

Wendy Alexander MSP
Labour leader in the Scottish Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 September, 2007
Preceded by	Jack McConnell
Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning
In office 28 November 2001 – 03 May 2002
First Minister	Jack McConnell
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Iain Gray
Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning
In office 01 November 2000 – 28 November 2001
First Minister	Henry McLeish
Preceded by	Iain Gray
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Minister for Communities
In office 01 November 2000 – 28 November 2001
First Minister	Donald Dewar
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Paisley North
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 May 1999
Preceded by	Constituency created
Majority	5,113 (22.0%)
Personal details
Born	(1963-06-27) June 27, 1963 Glasgow, Scotland
Political party	Labour Party

Wendy Alexander (born 27 June, 1963, Glasgow) is a Scottish politician and the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Paisley North. She has been the leader of the Labour Party group in the Scottish Parliament since 14th September, 2007.

Early Life

Her father, the Rev Douglas Alexander, presided at the funeral of Donald Dewar. "For almost 50 years, Donald and I were friends. We were together in the Labour Club of the University of Glasgow - all those years ago." he said. Alexander continued the family connection when Donald Dewar, a book edited by her was published in 2005.

Alexander's brother Douglas, the Secretary of State for International Development is a Labour Member of Parliament for Paisley and Renfrewshire South.

Alexander holds a degree in History from the University of Glasgow, a MA in Industrial Relations from the University of Warwick , and a MBA from INSEAD.

Member of Scottish Parliament

Prior to entering the Scottish Parliament, Alexander worked as a researcher for the then-Labour MP George Galloway, before going back to university. After her MBA she was then briefly a consultant for the international management consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton. She was then appointed as a special adviser to the Secretary of State for Scotland by her mentor Donald Dewar. From 1999 to 2002 she was a minister in the Scottish Executive, first as Minister for Communities, then as Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, and as Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning. She resigned from ministerial office on 4 May 2002.

After her stormy resignation from Jack McConnell's Cabinet in 2002 she was a visiting professor at the Strathclyde Business School. She later married Professor Brian Ashcroft and now has two children. She has a regular column in the Daily Record, the main Labour supporting tabloid.

Wendy has had a number of problems dealing with her staff to the extent that within the Scottish Executive her behaviour was described as being "Wendied"[1]. Since becoming leader of the Labour group in the Scottish Parliament she has had the unprecedented situation of three spin-doctors resigning within a matter of months [2]. Her new spin doctor (Simon Pia) has also created poor publicity as he was discovered to have stirred up trouble at a school by calling the head-teacher to spread malicious rounmers about the SNP cutting funding at the school.

Bid for Leadership of Scottish Labour

After the 2007 election, Alexander became Shadow Finance Secretary in Jack McConnell's Shadow Cabinet. On McConnell's resignation on 15 August 2007, she was mentioned as a possible successor, and two days later on 17 August she formally launched her campaign for the leadership of the Labour Party in Holyrood. As the only candidate, Alexander was installed as leader of the Labour group in the Scottish Parliament on 14 September 2007.

Leader of Scottish Labour

Leadership Rating

At the Scottish Labour Party conference on March 28 2008, Wendy Alexander was asked to rate her performance thus far as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party. She replied "Ten out of Ten, Ten out of Ten". However, a few days earlier on March 17 2008, an opinion poll on her personal opinion suggested that "thirty per cent of voters said Alexander was doing well and 52 per cent thought she was doing a bad job - giving her an approval rating of minus 22 percent."

An poll conducted in a Scottish paper indicated that 78% of Scots did not trust Wendy Alexander and 63% said that they would not vote for Labour until she had resigned and that Labour earned the trust of the people.

Controversies

Donation scandals

In 2007, a funding scandal developed after it emerged that she had accepted an illegal donation from Paul Green, a property magnate, a matter that was investigated by the Electoral Commission and Strathclyde Police. Further newspaper reports on 30 November indicated Alexander was aware of the identity of the donor, after having sent a personal letter of gratitude to Mr Green (at his home in the tax haven island of Jersey) concerning the donation. Accepting a donation from someone who is not registered on the UK electoral roll is illegal under electoral law, and is subject to criminal prosecution. As Mr Green was not registered as an elector on any electoral register in the United Kingdom this barred him from donating to a UK-based party. However, the Electoral Commission concluded in February 2008 that Alexander had taken 'significant steps' to comply with funding regulations and decided not to refer the matter to the Procurator Fiscal.. As part of the Electoral Commission ruling they also stated that Wendy "did not take all reasonable steps" and that "there is not sufficient evidence to establish that an offence has been committed". [3]. These mixed messages have resulted in a number of people questioning the decision including Alex Salmond the head of the Scottish Government who likened the result to a Not Proven verdict.[4]

In a separate development, a few days earlier in February 2008, the standards watchdog for Scotland reported Wendy Alexander to the procurator fiscal for failing to publicly declare campaign donations. She was subsequently acquitted of any wrong doing.

Scottish Independence Referendum

During a TV interview on 4 May 2008, Wendy Alexander performed a major U-turn on previous Scottish Labour Party's policy by seeming to endorse a referendum on Scottish Independence with the call to "bring it on!", despite previously refusing to support any referendum on the grounds that she did not support Independence.

During a further TV interview on 6 May 2008 she reiterated this commitment to a referendum and claimed that she had the full backing of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The following day, Gordon Brown when asked to confirm his backing for such a referendum during Prime Ministers Questions in Westminster denied flatly that this was Labour policy and that Wendy Alexander had been misrepresented. Despite this lack of backing, Wendy Alexander once again reiterated her commitment to a referendum during First Minister's Questions in the Scottish Parliament. After a week of extremely bad press coverage for the Labour party, Wendy Alexander and Gordon Brown eventually issued harmonised statements claiming that the SNP's bluff had been called and that Labour could no longer be claimed to be denying the Scottish people a referendum vote on their future.

See also

• Booz Allen Hamilton
• List of Scottish Executive Ministerial Teams

External links

• Scottish Parliament biography
• Wendy Alexander MSP Biography at the Labour party website
• Wendy Alexander MSP