A former Scottish Labour minister has been appointed to the House of Lords. Margaret Curran – who served in several ministerial roles in the Scottish Government – is one of 30 new Labour peers chosen by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Curran was the MSP for Glasgow Baillieston between between 1999 and 2011. The 66-year-old served as communities minister between 2002 and 2004, before becoming the minister for parliamentary business.
Curran was seen as a potential successor to Jack McConnell after Labour lost the 2007 Holyrood election, but she decided not to stand against Wendy Alexander.
In 2008, she famously lost the Glasgow East by-election to the SNP’s John Mason by 365 votes. The swing away from Labour was 22.5 per cent. But Curran won the Westminster seat back off Mason two years later.
She was a key part of Labour’s team in opposition, serving as shadow minister for disabled people before joining Ed Miliband’s cabinet as shadow Scottish secretary.
Curran was one of the dozens of Labour MPs ousted in the SNP’s landslide victory in the 2015 general election – losing to Natalie McGarry. Labour went from 40 to 41 Scottish constituencies at that election.
Curran will join her son Chris Murray – the new Labour MP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh – in Westminster.
Labour does not currently have a Scotland Office minister in the House of Lords.
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