Alexander Neil (born 22 August 1951) is a Scottish politician who served as

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, commonly referred to as the Health Secretary, is a cabinet position in the Scottish Government. The Cabinet Secretary is responsible for the Health and Social Care Directorates and NHS Scotland. ...

from 2012 to 2014 and

Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Communities and Pensioners' Rights The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice ( gd, Rùnaire a’ Chaibineit airson Ceartas Sòisealta), commonly referred to as the Social Justice Secretary, is a position in the Scottish Government cabinet (government), Cabinet. The Cabinet Secretary ...

from 2014 to 2016. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), he was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Airdrie and Shotts constituency from 2011 until his retirement in 2021.

Early life and education

Neil was born in

Ayrshire Central Hospital Ayrshire Central Hospital, also known as Irvine Central Hospital, is an NHS hospital in Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland. It is managed by NHS Ayrshire and Arran. History Formation The hospital is constructed on land which was formerly part of ...

, Irvine, the son of Margaret (née Gunning) and Alexander Neil snr, a coalminer. He was brought up in

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

, Ayrshire, and became involved in Labour politics, joining the Labour Party in 1967, aged 16. He was educated at

Ayr Academy Ayr Academy (Scottish Gaelic: ''Acadamaidh Inbhir Àir'') is a non-denominational secondary school situated within the Craigie Estate area at University Avenue in Ayr, South Ayrshire. It is a comprehensive school for children of ages 11–18 from ...

, before attending the

University of Dundee , mottoeng = "My soul doth magnify the Lord" , established = 1967 – gained independent university status by Royal Charter1897 – Constituent college of the University of St Andrews1881 – University College , ...

, where he studied

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

. He served as chairman of the Scottish Organisation of Labour Students and later the UK-wide

National Organisation of Labour Students Labour Students is a student organisation within the Labour Party of the United Kingdom. It is a network of affiliated college and university clubs, known as Labour Clubs, who campaign in their campuses and communities for Labour's values of e ...

Political career

Early years

After graduating with an MA (Hons) degree in 1973, Neil was appointed as the first-ever

research officer A research assistant (RA) is a researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university, a research institute or a privately held organization, for the purpose of assisting in academic or private research. Research assistants are not in ...

for the Scottish Executive Committee of the Labour Party. In 1976, Neil, along with

Jim Sillars James Sillars (born 4 October 1937) is a Scottish politician and campaigner for Scottish independence. Sillars served as a Labour Party MP for South Ayrshire from 1970 to 1976. He founded and led the pro- Scottish Home Rule Scottish Labour Par ...

and John Robertson, left the Labour Party to form the breakaway group, the Scottish Labour Party (SLP). Neil served as General Secretary of the SLP from 1976 to 1979. By 1979 the SLP had collapsed and Neil fell out of active politics until 1985 when he joined the Scottish National Party (SNP).

SNP

Neil would go on to become the SNP's Publicity Director, and then in charge of the party's policy, as well as a candidate in the 1989 Glasgow Central

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

and candidate in the Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency in the 1992 and 1997 general elections.

Member of the Scottish Parliament

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

he was elected SNP regional list MSP for Central Scotland in the first Scottish Parliament. The following year he stood unsuccessfully in the hard-fought contest for the leadership of the SNP against John Swinney. Thereafter he was appointed chair of the Scottish Parliament's Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Committee, a role he kept on until 2003. In 2003 he was re-elected as SNP MSP for Central Scotland to the Scottish Parliament. In July 2004, Neil announced that he would not be a candidate in the impending contest for the leadership of the SNP, despite the fact that he believed he had considerable support within the party. He said that the reason for his decision was that senior figures in the party (such as MSP

Fergus Ewing Fergus Stewart Ewing (born 23 September 1957) is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who served as the Scottish Government's Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy from 2016 to 2021, having previously held two junior ministerial posts. He ...

and former SNP leader

Alex Salmond Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond (; born 31 December 1954) is a Scottish politician and economist who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure on the Scottish nationalist movement, he has served as leader ...

) had made it clear publicly that they would not work with him as leader. In 2004 Neil was appointed chair of the Enterprise and Culture Committee. He was also a co-convenor of the Scottish Parliament's Cross-Party Group on the Scottish Economy. Neil emerged as a leading supporter of former policewoman

Shirley McKie Shirley McKie (born August 1962) is a former Scottish police detective who was accused by fingerprint analysis staff of the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) of leaving her thumb print on the bathroom door frame of a murder crime-scene i ...

as she bid to win compensation from the Scottish Government following her acquittal from perjury charges. He was again re-elected as a regional MSP for Central Scotland in 2007. He sat on the European and External Relations Committee and the Finance Committee from 2007–2009, upon his promotion to Scottish Minister. He voted for

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

in the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the EU, a choice he made less than two weeks before the vote, and is the only SNP MSP to publicly admit doing so. "I'd only recently left the SNP government and I wasn't going to rock the boat and I quite frankly didn't think it was all that important for me to say that at the time anyway," he told

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scotland, Scottish radio station, radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same na ...

. "The party's position - the government's position - was very clear and quite frankly, out of loyalty, I didn't think it was right for me at that stage to say so." In August 2020 he announced that he would be standing down as an MSP at the upcoming 2021 Holyrood election. In a statement, he said: "After much soul searching, I have decided that to commit to another five years as an MSP would mean not having the time to pursue all the other things in life I want to do. I also owe it to my wife and family to spend more time with them. I have two beautiful granddaughters who miss me when I am away so often on parliamentary and constituency business. I want to spend more time with them."

Government Minister

In the first reshuffle of the SNP Government since it took office in 2007, Neil was appointed as the

Minister for Housing and Communities The Minister for Housing and Welfare was a Junior ministerial post in the Scottish Government. As a result, the Minister did not attend the Scottish Cabinet. The post was created in May 2007 as the Minister of Communities and Sport, but was ren ...

in February 2009. In 2011 Neil defeated

Karen Whitefield Karen Whitefield (born 8 January 1970, Bellshill) is a Scottish Labour politician. She was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Airdrie and Shotts constituency from 1999 to 2011. Political career Prior to her election as MSP ...

in the Airdrie and Shotts constituency, gaining a majority of 2001, a 5.5% swing from Labour to SNP. He was promoted to the Scottish Cabinet on 19 May 2011 by

to become the new Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment after the SNP's landslide win in the 2011 Scottish election. He was moved from that post to the post of

in September 2012. A month into this post, in an interview with ''

Scotland on Sunday ''Scotland on Sunday'' is a Scottish Sunday newspaper, published in Edinburgh by JPIMedia and consequently assuming the role of Sunday sister to its daily stablemate '' The Scotsman''. It was originally printed in broadsheet format but in 20 ...

'' Neil spoke about the possibility of abortion laws being made in Scotland rather than Westminster, saying that politicians would have to consider the medical evidence. In May 2014 Neil survived a vote of no confidence 57-67. Opposition MSPs had alleged he had acted improperly by cancelling changes to mental health provision when he took up his post as Health Secretary. After Nicola Sturgeon became First Minister of Scotland in November 2014, Neil was appointed to the new post of

. He resigned from the Government on 18 May 2016.

Awards

Neil has been honoured three times in the Scottish Politician of the Year awards organised by '' The Herald'' newspaper. In 2005, he was named "Donald Dewar Debater of the Year"; in 2017, he won the award in the "Committee Member of the Year" category; and in 2020, he was designated "best of the best" in the "Donald Dewar Debater of the Year" category.

Personal life

Neil is married to Isabella Kerr and together they have one son.

References

External links

*
Alex Neil
on

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, - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Neil, Alex 1951 births Living people People from East Ayrshire Alumni of the University of Dundee Health ministers of Scotland Scottish Labour Party (1976) politicians Scottish National Party MSPs Members of the Scottish Parliament 1999–2003 Members of the Scottish Parliament 2003–2007 Members of the Scottish Parliament 2007–2011 Members of the Scottish Parliament 2011–2016 Members of the Scottish Parliament 2016–2021