Richard Baker (Scottish politician)

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Richard James Baker (born 29 May 1974) is a Scottish Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament for Glenrothes and Mid Fife since 2024.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Baker was previously a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the North East Scotland region.

Early life

Baker was born in Edinburgh to an Episcopalian priest father and English teacher mother, and is godson to the then Episcopalian Bishop of Aberdeen, Bruce Cameron. He was educated at the independent St. Bees School in Cumbria and at Aberdeen University.<ref>Profile, timeshighereducation.co, 24 December 1999.</ref> He was the elected president of the National Union of Students Scotland from 1998 till 2000 and before that the senior vice-president (an elected, full-time sabbatical officer post) at the University of Aberdeen students' representative council (now Aberdeen University Students' Association) in the academic year 1995/96. He is a former Scottish press officer of Help the Aged. Baker is a member of Unite the Union and the Co-operative Party.Template:Citation needed

Political career

He was first elected in the 2003 Scottish Parliament election, when he was the youngest sitting MSP. He is a former member of Labour's Shadow Cabinet in the Scottish Parliament having served as the Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance.

In the early part of 2014, he was selected as the Labour candidate for Aberdeen North in the 2015 UK general election, after current MP Frank Doran announced his retirement. However, he lost in the election to Scottish National Party candidate Kirsty Blackman.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In June 2015, Baker announced he would stand in the 2015 Scottish Labour Party deputy leadership election.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> When the result was announced, he had come third of the three candidates in a close contest with 30% of the vote.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In September 2015, Baker announced he would be stepping down from the parliament at the 2016 election.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He instead stood down early in January 2016 to take up a job with Age Scotland. As a list MSP, his seat was taken up by the next person on the Labour list for the North East Scotland region, Lesley Brennan.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In July 2024, he was elected Member of Parliament for the new constituency of Glenrothes and Mid Fife in the United Kingdom general election.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

It was revealed that Baker is also a landlord and rents out four apartments. <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

General Election 2024 - Glenrothes and Mid Fife result

Party	Vote share	Change since 2019
Labour	44.3%	+16.9%
Scottish National Party	36.1%	-13.4%
Reform UK	9.8%	+6.8%
Conservative	5.5%	-9.8%
Liberal Democrat	4.4%	-
Others	-	-

Personal life

Baker married Claire Brennan in 2004, with whom he has a daughter.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Claire has served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament since 2007.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

External links

• Template:SP-MSP
• Richard Baker MSP – Personal website
• Scottish Labour Party – Crime & Justice