Born                         15 June 1948

Constituency          MP for Central Fife 1987 - 2001 MSP for Central Fife 1999 - 2003

Party                          Labour

Majority                    18,828 in the 1999 Scottish Parliament Elections

Henry McLeish was born in Fife and educated at Buckhaven High and Heriot-Watt University where he gained a BA (Hons) in urban planning.

Following a career as a Professional Footballer at East Fife football club he started work for Dunfermline district council and Fife county council as a Planning Officer.

He was elected a district councillor in Kirkcaldy aged 24, just  2 years after joining the Labour Party in 1974. In 1978 he was elected to Fife County Council and was appointed the Leader of the council in 1982 overseeing the introduction of free TV Licences and bus passes for Pensioners .

In 1987 McLeish was elected as MP for Central Fife and was appointed as Deputy Scottish Spokesman in 1992. Following Tony Blair's election as Leader in 1994 he was appointed as deputy spokesman on transport and served as Deputy Health Spokesman from 1995 - 1996.

After Labour's victory in the 1997 General Election he became a Minister at the Scottish Office and de facto deputy to Donald Dewar. the Scottish Secretary within the Scottish Labour Party. McLeish won election to the first Scottish Parliament in 1999 when he was elected as the MSP for Central Fife and was appointed to be Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning in the Executive

Following Dewar's death in 2000 McLeish issued a statement saying ""Following discussions with colleagues here in Scotland and widespread representations from the Scottish Parliamentary Labour Party, the party's Scottish Executive and members of the Scottish Government, I am honoured to put my name forward as Labour Leader in Scotland." He went on to beat Jack McConnell in the subsequent Labour Leadership election by 44 votes to 36

Following his election he called for more powers for the Scottish Parliament saying "we are only scratching the surface of devolution at the present time and I would hope with my colleagues over the next few days and next few weeks to show people that this is not an annex of anywhere in the United Kingdom, this is a very proud, very purposeful, parliament in which I will take a very Scottish role indeed."

McLeish's term as First Minister was marked by continued battles for Student Finance and  Care for the Elderly.

In April 2001 press reports appeared that alleged he was receiving payment  for sub letting part of his constituency office. McLeish's office responded to the allegations saying ""the matter has been dealt with. The income in question was not for Mr McLeish's personal use, it went straight into covering the costs of running the office. " The row. christened "Officegate" ran on till the Autumn when McLeish published his expenses.

The affair attracted increasingly negative press coverage which culminated in a poll for Scottish TV showing that 77% of electors wanted McLeish to resign. He resigned on 8 November 2001