Richard Baker

Richard Baker was elected Labour MP for Glenrothes and Mid Fife on 4 July 2024 with 15,994 votes and a majority of 2,954 (8.2 per cent), defeating SNP incumbent Peter Grant. He is half of a political partnership that a transparency platform must state: his wife, Claire Baker, has been Labour MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife since 2007, a husband at Westminster and a wife at Holyrood both representing Labour in overlapping Fife territory.

He was not the original Labour candidate. Altany Craik, Fife Council's finance chief, had been selected but was dropped after Labour took concern at the adult content of his fantasy novels, reported as "too sexy and satanic," and Baker was chosen when the seat reopened.

Born in Edinburgh in May 1974 and a University of Aberdeen graduate, he was a Labour list MSP for North East Scotland from 2003 to 2016, nearly 13 years, holding Scottish Labour shadow portfolios in justice and finance and challenging for the Scottish Labour deputy leadership in 2015. He was not defeated at Holyrood; he chose to leave in January 2016 for a role with Age Scotland, and then spent eight years outside elected politics working for disability charities, including Enable, supporting people with learning disabilities and serving on charity boards, a record he calls a privilege.

The constituency covers Methil, Buckhaven, the Wemyss villages, Glenrothes, Cardenden, Lochgelly, Kelty and surrounding communities with proud mining heritage; Buckhaven and Methil contain the highest concentration of deprived communities in Fife. He has highlighted the Labour government's role in saving Methil Yard as a specific constituency achievement. At Westminster he sits on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. Reform UK took 3,528 votes (9.8 per cent) and the SNP remained within striking distance.