Patrick Bosco McFadden (born 26 March 1965) is a British politician serving as

Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury The Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury is the most junior member of the Shadow Cabinet, and is the deputy to the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury acts as the primary opposition to the equivalent G ...

since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, he has served as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for

Wolverhampton South East Wolverhampton South East is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. Members of Parliament ...

since 2005. McFadden attended the Cabinet of Prime Minister Gordon Brown as Minister of State for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2009 to 2010, deputy to

Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills The secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The incumbent is a memb ...

Peter Mandelson Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson (born 21 October 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who served as First Secretary of State from 2009 to 2010. He was President of the Board of Trade in 1998 and from 2008 to 2010. He is the ...

. He was Minister of State for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs from 2007 to 2009, and

Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office The Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office is a junior ministerial role at the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom. History Responsibilities The office holder has the following responsibilities: * Supporting the Minister for the ...

from 2006 to 2007. Prior to his election to Parliament, he was an aide to

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

and served as his Political Secretary during his premiership. In opposition, he served as

Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills The Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Industrial Strategy is an office within British politics held by a member of His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition. The duty of the office holder is to scrutinise the actions of the government's Secr ...

in the

first Shadow Cabinet of Harriet Harman Harriet Harman led the Shadow Cabinet during her time as pro tempore Leader of the Labour Party in 2010—from the time Gordon Brown resigned as Labour Leader (and Prime Minister) until Ed Miliband was elected to the leadership. With a few ex ...

from May to October 2010. Unsuccessfully elected in the 2010 Shadow Cabinet election, he was appointed Shadow

Minister for Europe Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of governme ...

Ed Miliband Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliban ...

in 2014 and re-appointed by Jeremy Corbyn in 2015. McFadden was sacked from the front bench by Corbyn in 2016, and remained on the back benches until he was appointed Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury in 2020 by

Keir Starmer Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras s ...

. He was promoted to the shadow cabinet in 2021 as

Early life and career

McFadden was born in Paisley in

Renfrewshire Renfrewshire () ( sco, Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. Located in the west central Lowlands, it is one of three council areas contained within the boundaries of the historic county of Re ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. He is the son of Annie and James McFadden, both native

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

speakers from the

Falcarragh An Fál Carrach (anglicized as Falcarragh), sometimes called Na Crois Bhealaí ("the crossroads") is a small Gaeltacht town and townland in north-west County Donegal, Ireland. The settlement is in the old parish of Cloughaneely. Irish language A ...

area in

Cloughaneely Cloughaneely (official name: ) is a district in the west of County Donegal, Ireland. This is a mainly coastal area with a population of over 4,000 centred on the towns of Falcarragh () and Gortahork (). It is a Gaeltacht area, meaning the Irish ...

, a district in the north of

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconn ...

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. As a child, he regularly visited County Donegal. He went to Holy Cross RC Primary School on Calder Street and

Holyrood Secondary School ("By this conquer!") , established = 1936 , closed = , type = Comprehensive , religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic , president = , head_name = , head ...

in Crosshill, south-east Glasgow. McFadden studied Politics at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, gaining an

undergraduate Master of Arts The degree of Master of Arts (MA; , ) in Scotland is an undergraduate degree. The degree can be either a three-year general or four-year ''Honours degree'' in humanities or social sciences, awarded by one of several institutions. Chiefly, the ...

(MA Hons) degree in 1988, and was chair of

Scottish Labour Students Scottish Labour Students (SLS) is a student society affiliated to Scottish Labour, and part of the UK wide organisation Labour Students. It aims to bring Labour values to campuses and represent students within the Labour Party throughout Scot ...

in 1986–87 before becoming a researcher in 1988 for

Donald Dewar Donald Campbell Dewar (21 August 1937 – 11 October 2000) was a Scottish politician who served as the inaugural First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 1999 until his death in 2000. He previously served as ...

, then Labour's Scottish Affairs spokesman. In 1993 he left this role to become a speechwriter and policy adviser to the Labour leader John Smith. Prior to becoming an MP, he worked in several advisory roles for

, both in opposition and government, and was the Prime Minister's Political Secretary from 2002.The Rt Hon Pat Jimmy Den Rua MP
Documentary, TV Listings, www.tg4.ie, 16 September 2013.

Parliamentary career

McFadden was elected as the MP for Wolverhampton South East at the 2005 general election, with a majority of 10,495, after

Dennis Turner Dennis Turner, Baron Bilston (26 August 1942 – 25 February 2014) was a British Labour Co-operative politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wolverhampton South East from 1987 to 2005. Early life Turner was born in Bradley in t ...

retired. In the 2006 reshuffle he was appointed as

. In the 2007 reshuffle he was promoted to

Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. In ...

in the then newly created

Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) was a United Kingdom government department. The department was created on 28 June 2007 on the disbanding of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and was itself disbande ...

with responsibility for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs. In October 2008, when

Lord Mandelson Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson (born 21 October 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who served as First Secretary of State from 2009 to 2010. He was President of the Board of Trade in 1998 and from 2008 to 2010. He is the ...

replaced John Hutton as Business Secretary, McFadden took on duties as his deputy in order to represent the department in the House of Commons as Mandelson is a peer and can only address the Lords. McFadden was contemporaneously appointed to the Privy Council. Following Labour's defeat in the 2010 election and the resignation of

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...

, McFadden was named in interim leader

Harriet Harman Harriet Ruth Harman (born 30 July 1950) is a British politician and solicitor who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Camberwell and Peckham, formerly Peckham, since 1982. A member of the Labour Party, she has served in various Cabi ...

's shadow cabinet as Shadow Business Secretary. When

was elected as Labour leader in September 2010, McFadden announced his decision to stand in Labour's shadow cabinet election but was not elected. However, when he reshuffled his Shadow Cabinet in 2014, Miliband appointed him as shadow minister for Europe. In the 2015 Labour Party leadership election, he nominated

Liz Kendall Elizabeth Louise Kendall (born 11 June 1971) is a British Labour Party politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester West since 2010. Kendall was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, where she read history. From 2011 to 2 ...

. He retained his post when

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

became Labour leader but was sacked along with

Michael Dugher Michael Vincent Dugher (pronounced ; born 26 April 1975) is a former British Labour politician who was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Barnsley East at the 2010 general election. He has held several senior positions within the par ...

in January 2016. He was sacked for what the leadership described as repeated acts of disloyalty, including when, responding to a Stop the War article on the Paris bombings, he condemned "the view that sees terrorist acts as always being a response or a reaction to what we in the west do".

John McDonnell John Martin McDonnell (born 8 September 1951) is a British politician who served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2015 to 2020. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hayes and Harlington since 1997. ...

said that McFadden's remarks, expressed in a question to the Prime Minister and interpreted as an attack on Corbyn, were an example of him undermining the leader's view. McFadden was defended by

Ian Austin Ian Christopher Austin, Baron Austin of Dudley (born 6 March 1965) is a British politician who sits as a life peer in the House of Lords. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dudley North from the 2005 general election until the 2019 gene ...

and Chris Leslie. Jonathan Reynolds and Stephen Doughty expressed support for McFadden in their resignation letters the following day. He supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace

in the 2016 Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2016 Labour leadership election. He voted in favour of the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill to trigger Article 50 and exit the European Union. He was opposed to a no deal Brexit and supports a close trading relationship with the European Union. He was in favour of a second referendum to give the people a final say on leaving the European Union. He is part of Open Britain (a British pro-European campaign group) and defended

's pro-European speech in February 2017. He is associated with the Labour centre-left Labour First grouping and is a vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel. On 9 April 2020, McFadden was appointed as HM Treasury, Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury by new party leader

. He was promoted to

in the November 2021 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, November 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle.

Personal life

McFadden and his wife, Marianna, have a son and a daughter. He is a supporter of Celtic F.C.

References

External links

Pat McFadden Official website
*

Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform – From The National Archives
Pat McFadden: Electoral history and profile
The Guardian
BBC Politics
*

News items

* Hugh Mui
Diary
''The Guardian'', 19 May 2009
Baby boy for city MP Pat
Express & Star, 16 May 2009
Unions 'too quiet on Labour wins'
BBC News, 25 March 2009
Pat McFadden interview
Politics Show, BBC News, 1 June 2008
Bus boosts minimum wage campaign
BBC News, 10 January 2008 , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:McFadden, Pat 1965 births Living people Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Labour Party (UK) officials Labour Friends of Israel Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People educated at Holyrood Secondary School Politicians from Paisley, Renfrewshire Scottish people of Irish descent Scottish Roman Catholics Scottish special advisers UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present