Ken Macintosh

Early life

Born in Inverness, Macintosh was educated at the Portree and Oban primary schools before attending Royal High School, Edinburgh. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an History MA (Hons) in 1984.

Both his parents were headteachers. His father Dr Farquhar Macintosh CBE was a Gaelic speaker from Skye, a leading intellectual in Scottish education and was Rector of the Royal High in Edinburgh and chair of the Scottish Examination Board. His mother, Margaret Macintosh, is from Peebles and was head of Drummond Community High and assistant head of Wester Hailes Education Centre.

BBC career

Before Macintosh became an MSP, he was from 1987 to 1999, a television producer for the BBC News Network. He also worked on Breakfast with Frost, Breakfast News, and the Nine O'Clock News. He was also worked as a researcher on election programmes for both David Dimbleby and Jonathan Dimbleby.

Member of the Scottish Parliament

At the 1999 election, he won the Eastwood constituency with a majority of 2,125.

In February 2002, Macintosh was appointed as a ministerial parliamentary aide (MPA) to Minister for Education and Young People, Cathy Jamieson. He resigned from this role in September 2002 when he voted against the Labour-Liberal Democrat Coalition Scottish Executive over the closure of the A&E department at the Glasgow Victoria Infirmary.

In 2005 Macintosh had to resign from his position as Deputy Convenor on the Standards Committee after it was revealed he had failed to declare £330 of hospitality from McDonald's within the required time.

In 2006 and 2007 Macintosh has proposed a Member's Bill to the Scottish Parliament providing for the tougher regulation of sunbed parlours, which passed successfully. Since his election in 1999 has been a member of the cross-party group on cancer. From February 2007 to April 2007, he was a Ministerial Parliamentary Aide to the First Minister Jack McConnell.

Macintosh was re-elected as MSP for Eastwood at the 2007 election with a narrow majority of 913, where he fought off a strong challenge from the Conservative Party's Jackson Carlaw. Macintosh was appointed Shadow Minister for Schools and Skills.

Macintosh considered running for the 2008 Scottish Labour leadership election but pulled out and instead backed Andy Kerr's candidacy.

At the 2011 parliamentary election he once again defeated Jackson Carlaw with an increased majority of 2,012. The swing was 8.7% from Conservative to Labour. Macintosh had feared losing the constituency following boundary changes (with the removal of Barrhead, Neilston and Uplawmoor) which gave a notional Conservative majority of almost 3500. After the party's loss to the SNP, Macintosh was made Shadow Culture and External Affairs Secretary. Only a week later though, he took over the Shadow Education portfolio after MSP Malcolm Chisholm resigned over an internal party disagreement.

2011 Scottish Labour Party leadership election

Ken Macintosh launched his candidacy for leader of the Scottish Labour Party on 12 September 2011. MSP colleagues who endorsed his leadership bid included: his campaign manager Michael McMahon, Claire Baker, Mary Fee, Neil Bibby, Mark Griffin, Kezia Dugdale and Jenny Marra. Macintosh was also supported by East Renfrewshire MP Jim Murphy, co-author of the Review of the Labour Party in Scotland. Murphy and Macintosh share the same constituency office in Clarkston, East Renfrewshire.

In an address to party members, Macintosh said he was a devolutionist, not a unionist.

On 28 October 2011, Macintosh officially launched his leadership campaign at Cumbernauld College in North Lanarkshire. He described the 2011 Holyrood election result as a "disaster", and that the party had been too negative and if it did not change it "will consign ourselves to steady decline and years of opposition. We need to unite as a party and to start talking positively about our values, what Labour stands for and not just what we are against."

Miliband gaffe

Despite lacking ministerial experience "having never put a feather on the front bench" he was widely seen as a frontrunner in the leadership contest; however, UK Labour leader Ed Miliband was unable to recall Ken Macintosh's name during a TV interview with BBC Scotland, during the September 2011 Labour Party Conference. After the interview, Miliband telephoned Macintosh to apologise for his mistake. Later, Macintosh tried to downplay the incident saying "I don't think anyone should read anything into it – half the time I can't even remember the names of my own kids."

2015 Scottish Labour Party leadership election

Following Scottish Labour's near wipeout at the 2015 General Election, Ken Macintosh decided to stand in the 2015 Scottish Labour Party leadership election, triggered by the resignation of Jim Murphy. Macintosh faced a straight two-way contest with previous deputy leader Kezia Dugdale, who won the leadership.

Personal life

He and his wife Claire live in Busby, East Renfrewshire with their six children.

Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament

On 12 May 2016, Ken Macintosh was elected presiding officer with 71 votes on the third round of voting. He beat Murdo Fraser, Johann Lamont, John Scott and Elaine Smith. He suspended his Labour membership upon taking office, per the tradition that the Presiding Officer is strictly nonpartisan.