Iain McKenzie

Iain McKenzie (born 4 April 1959) is a Scottish Labour Party politician, who was formerly the Member of Parliament for Inverclyde. He was elected at the June 2011 by-election, and stood unsuccessfully for re-election in the 2015 general election.

Iain McKenzie
McKenzie in 2011
Member of Parliament for Inverclyde
In office 30 June 2011 – 30 March 2015
Preceded by	David Cairns
Succeeded by	Ronnie Cowan
Majority	5,838 (20.8%)
Personal details
Born	(1959-04-04) 4 April 1959 (age 66) Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland
Political party	Scottish Labour
Spouse	Alison

Early life

McKenzie was born and raised in Greenock, Inverclyde's largest town, in the areas of Broomhill and Fancy Farm.^[1] A former employee of IBM, he was elected to Inverclyde Council, becoming Leader of the Council in February 2011.^[2]

Parliament

McKenzie's election followed the death of David Cairns, who had represented the constituency since 2001. McKenzie made his maiden speech to the House of Commons on 11 July 2011, mainly focusing on employment, opportunity and population growth in his constituency.^[3]

McKenzie was one of the few Labour MPs who initially voted against legalising gay marriage in the UK. However, on the third reading of the bill, McKenzie voted for gay marriage as he was satisfied protection for religious groups had been ironed out.^[4] He also did not support British involvement in airstrikes in Iraq on 26 September 2014, for which he was sacked as a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Shadow Defence Secretary, Vernon Coaker.^[5]

His Parliamentary biography lists his political interests as 'Europe' and 'employment'.^[6]