Alexander, Douglas (Garven) (1967– )

British Labour politician, member of Parliament from 1997 for Paisley South (and Paisley and Renfrewshire South from 2005), and secretary of state for international development from 2007. A trained solicitor, he has been a Labour Party member since the age of 14. He served as secretary of state for both transport and Scotland 2006–07. A key ally of Gordon Brown, he moved to the international development portfolio in June 2007 after Brown succeeded Tony Blair as prime minister, and he was also appointed general election coordinator.

Born in Glasgow, the son of a Church of Scotland minister, Alexander went to school in Erskine, Renfrewshire. Before studying politics and history at Edinburgh University, he studied abroad in Vancouver, Canada, on a scholarship. He then took a masters degree at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, where he also worked for the democrat Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election campaign. In 1990, he worked as a researcher and speech writer for the shadow trade and industry secretary, before training and working in Edinburgh as a solicitor. After two unsuccessful challenges in 1995 and 1997 to become an MP, he won the Paisley South by-election in November 1997.

Alexander began his ministerial career in 2001, in the Department of Trade and Industry, and in May 2002 became minister of state at the Cabinet Office, overseeing the government's strategy unit and the civil service. In September 2004, he was appointed minister of state for trade, investment, and foreign affairs. Following his re-election in May 2005 for the new parliamentary constituency of Paisley and Renfrewshire South, he was minister of state for Europe, before entering the cabinet in May 2006 as secretary of state for transport and Scotland, with a brief to keep tight control over public spending on transport projects. In September 2007, his sister, Wendy Alexander, became leader of the Labour Party group in the Scottish Parliament.