Blair McDougall is a Scottish political adviser in the British Labour Party. He is best known as head strategist to the Better Together campaign during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.[1][2]
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Career
He was educated at the University of Glasgow, where as chair of the Labour Club he was Ross Kemp's campaign manager during the 1999 Rectorial election.[3]
He went on to serve as chair of Scottish Labour Students from 2001 to 2003 before becoming a special adviser to Ian McCartney, Minister for Trade, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and James Purnell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport in the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.[4]
In 2006 he took the post of Youth Representative on Labour's National Executive Committee.[4]
Following Labour's defeat in the 2010 general election, McDougall coordinated David Miliband's unsuccessful campaign for the party leadership. He became Campaign Director of Better Together in 2012.[5] After the No vote in the referendum on 18 September 2014, McDougall explained a key element of success had been regular and rigorous voter research and message testing.[6]
In 2014, he was appointed to an advisory role in Jim Murphy's successful campaign for the Scottish Labour leadership.[7] Murphy subsequently lost his seat to the SNP in the 2015 general election.[8]
In April 2017, McDougall was confirmed as the Scottish Labour candidate for Murphy's former constituency of East Renfrewshire in the 2017 general election.[8][9] He came third in that election, with 26.7% of the vote, a fall in the Labour vote of over 7 points as compared with the 2015 election, in which Murphy came second with 34% of the vote.[10]
In January 2020, Labour MP Jess Phillips hired McDougall as Scotland adviser for her unsuccessful leadership campaign.[5]
McDougall announced in July 2023 that he was running to be the Labour candidate for East Renfrewshire at the next United Kingdom general election.[11][12][13]
Personal life
McDougall has two children.[14]
References
- ^ Young, Gregor (5 October 2021). "Better Together chief accused of 'bullsh*t' in pensions row". The National.
- ^ "No one is as well acquainted with 'bullsh*t' as Better Together's Blair McDougall". Business for Scotland. 5 October 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
- ^ "Grannie competes with EastEnders hardman for university rector's post". The Herald. 2 February 1999.
- ^ a b Pike, Joe (2015). Project Fear: How an Unlikely Alliance Left a Kingdom United but a Country Divided. Biteback Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84954-995-0.
- ^ a b The Jouker (14 January 2020). "Jess Phillips hires Better Together boss as Scotland adviser". The Scotsman.
- ^ Datoo, Siraj (22 September 2014). "Better Together Campaign Chief: We Would Have Struggled To Win Without 'Scaremongering'". BuzzFeed.
- ^ "Blair McDougall lands Jim Murphy advisor role". The Scotsman. 31 October 2014. Archived from the original on 19 August 2016. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
- ^ a b "Better Together chief Blair McDougall to stand for election". The Scotsman. 26 April 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
- ^ Green, Chris (26 April 2017). "Better Together chief named as Labour election candidate". inews.co.uk.
- ^ "It's a win for the Conservatives Paul Masterton - and a resounding one at that!". Glasgow World. 9 June 2017. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
- ^ Morrison, Hamish (26 July 2023). "Ex-Better Together chief in running to be Labour MP". The National.
- ^ Boothman, John (30 July 2023). "Former Better Together leader launches bid to be Labour MP". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 30 July 2023.
- ^ "Former Better Together chief Blair McDougall selected as Scottish Labour election candidate". Retrieved 28 November 2023.
- ^ Simons, Ned (14 October 2014). "'I Knew We Had Won Before Ballot Boxes Started To Be Opened'". HuffPost UK.
This page was last edited on 13 December 2023, at 19:21