Profile: David Cairns

Profile: David Cairns

Wednesday, 17, Sep 2008 12:00

David Cairns says he became political while serving as a Catholic priest in Clapham, south London.

As anyone from the area will tell you, there are many Claphams. The quiet, middle class Clapham of newlywed couples taking their baby for a Sunday afternoon stroll co-exists easily with the sweaty nightlife of the club Infernos. But Clapham also has some of the most severe disparities of wealth in the capital. As most estate agents already know, it is almost unheard of to find such high house prices in an area with such high crime rates.

Mr Cairns says it was that disparity which propelled him into parliament.

It's "the kind of place where the very rich and very poor live next to each other," he said. "It became clear that political action was going to be part of the solution."

But his progression from priest to politician required something more than just desire. Mr Cairns was the only sitting MP who could only enter parliament after a law was changed on his behalf.

The House of Commons (Removal of Clergy Disqualification) Act 2001 was passed just in time to give him access. It reversed a previous law – and not before time, as its supporters argued – which forbade former Catholic priests from taking up a seat in the Commons.

He became Labour MP for the Scottish seat of Greenock and Inverclyde that same year as Labour began its second term in office. But his real political career had begun slightly earlier, as a researcher for Siobhain McDonagh, the party whip who recently resigned as the first martyr of the new Labour rebels.

She has previously tried to push through legislation repealing the laws barring him from parliament but ran out of session time. Now, with his actions mirroring her, their loyalty looks like it could be responsible for a fundamental change at the uppermost levels of British politics.

His career in Westminster was fairly orthodox, although by becoming a minister in the Scottish Office just six years after entering parliament he evidently showed signs of promise.

Those signs were not corroborated by his role as manager for Labour's jaw-droppingly bad Glasgow East campaign, where the party managed to lose one of its safest seats in the country to the Scottish National party (SNP). With another by-election on the horizon in the form of Glenrothes, Mr Cairns may not have needed that much incentive to leave his job.

But his possession of the fox-like cunning required of successful politicians is not entirely in doubt. Just under a year ago, when Gordon Brown bottled the general election that never was, Mr Cairns stood up proudly for his leader.

"He [Mr Brown] was very resolute that he was getting on with the job in hand, the business of running the country," Mr Cairns said.

"And that's what he'll do until the general election comes, whenever that is."

It now appears his mood has changed.