Henry McLeish

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The Rt Hon. Henry McLeish
2nd First Minister of Scotland
In office October 27, 2000 – November 8, 2001
Deputy	Jim Wallace
Preceded by	Donald Dewar
Succeeded by	Jack McConnell
Born	June 15, 1948 Methil, Fife
Constituency	Fife Central
Political party	Labour

Henry McLeish (born June 15, 1948) is a Scottish politician. He served as the second First Minister of Scotland from 2000 to November 8, 2001, following the sudden death of Donald Dewar, and had been the Member of Parliament for Central Fife from 1987 to 2001 and MSP for Fife Central from 1999 to 2003.

He was a professional footballer playing for East Fife F.C., which he signed for after a spell at Leeds United F.C. and also represented Scotland as a youth international. After this he was a lecturer at Heriot-Watt University before entering politics. McLeish was leader of Fife Regional Council, before his election as a Labour MP for Central Fife at the 1987 General Election. When Labour came to power in 1997, McLeish was appointed as a Minister of the Scottish Office.

As Donald Dewar's right hand man he helped secure devolution for Scotland and manoeuvre the appropriate legislation through Parliament. After the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, McLeish was elected as MSP for Fife Central and became Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning. After Dewar's untimely death in 2000, McLeish defeated his rival Jack McConnell in the race for First Ministership

While First Minister he was embarrassed when an open microphone recorded him making derogatory comments to Helen Liddell in a TV studio. He described John Reid as "a patronising bastard" and said of his colleague Brian Wilson "Brian is supposed to be in charge of Africa but he spends most of his time in bloody Dublin. He is a liability." ("Labours chiefs in 'comments row'")

He resigned as First Minister in 2001 amid a scandal involving allegations he sub-let part of his Westminster constituency office, which was subsidised by the tax-payer without registering this, in the 'register of interests', with Parliamentary authorities. The scandal was dubbed Officegate. Although he did not personally benefit financially, he undertook to repay the £36,000 rental income, and resigned to allow the Scottish Labour Party a clean break to prepare for the 2003 Parliamentary elections. McLeish did not seek re-election.

Since leaving mainstream politics Henry has become a consultant with political and public relations consultancy Halogen Communications Ltd and has written a number of books including Scotland First: Truth and Consequences and Global Scots.

Henry is also is a Hartman Hotz Visiting Professor in Law and Liberal Arts and Sciences at the Fulbright College, University of Arkansas, USA. Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver, USA. Visiting lecturer at the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. Honorary Fellow at the College of Humanities and Social Science at Edinburgh University, Scotland. Honorary Fellow at the Cambridge Land Institute, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. Adviser, Consultant and Facilitator to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions and the European Monitoring Centre for Change, Dublin, Ireland. Adviser and Consultant to the LEED Programme of the OECD in Paris, France, including visits to Austria, Italy, and Mexico.

He is also a consultant in partnership with Jeremy Harrison, Cambridge (Public Value Partnership working on new project development and evaluation of existing projects in the community and voluntary sector.

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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Willie Hamilton	Member of Parliament for Central Fife 1987–2001	Succeeded by John MacDougall
Political offices
Preceded by Donald Dewar	First Minister of Scotland 2000–2001	Succeeded by Jack McConnell