David Cairns (politician)

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For other persons of the same name, see David Cairns.

John David Cairns, known as David Cairns, (born August 7, 1966, Greenock) is a Scottish politician. He is the Labour Party Member of Parliament for Inverclyde and is the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office.

Cairns attended the Notre Dame High School in the burgh of Greenock, before training for the Roman Catholic priesthood at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He contained his studies at the Franciscan International Centre in Canterbury.[1] From 1991 he served in many places as a Catholic priest including in Scotland and London before politics drew him from the priesthood in 1994 to become a director of the Christian Socialist Movement. In 1997 he became a research assistant to the newly elected Labour MP, Siobhain McDonagh until he himself became an MP in 2001. In 1998 he was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Merton where he served until 2002.

Cairns had ambitions to enter parliament but was barred due to the House of Commons (Clergy Disqualification) Act 1801 and the Catholic Relief Act 1829 which prevented former Roman Catholic priests from being elected to parliament. To rectify this, Siobhain McDonagh introduced the House of Commons Disqualification (Amendment) Bill in parliament on June 16, 1999[2], but the bill fell. Cairns had been selected as the candidate in his home town following the retirement of Norman Godman, the government introduced legislation and the law was changed on May 11, 2001 under the House of Commons (Removal of Clergy Disqualification) Act 2001.[3]

Cairns was elected as the Labour MP for Greenock and Inverclyde at the 2001 General Election with a majority of 9,890 and made his maiden speech on July 4, 2001.[4] Of note, he became the first person born in Greenock to represent it in parliament. He was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions Malcolm Wicks in 2003, and following the 2005 General Election, at which, due to the redrawing of boundaries his constituency was abolished and replaced with a larger Inverclyde constituency, he became a member of the Labour government as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland. At this time he was Chair of Labour Friends of Israel, and while he then gave up the position of chair, he remains a member of this group which expresses friendship both with a secure peaceful Israel and with a viable democratic Palestinian state.

Cairns speaks Italian.

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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Norman Godman		 Member of Parliament for Greenock and Inverclyde
2001–2005		 Succeeded by
(constituency abolished)
Preceded by
(new constituency)		 Member of Parliament for Inverclyde
2005 – present		 Incumbent
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