Background
McFadden is the son of Annie and James McFadden, both native Irish language speakers from the Falcarragh area of northern County Donegal in Ireland.
McFadden is the son of Annie and James McFadden, both native Irish language speakers from the Falcarragh area of northern County Donegal in Ireland.
McFadden studied Politics at the University of Edinburgh, gaining an Master of Arts in 1988, and was chair of Scottish Labour Students in 1986-1987 before becoming a researcher in 1988 for Donald Dewar, then Labour"s Scottish Affairs spokesman.
He was briefly Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, and from October 2014 to January 2016 was Shadow spokesman on Europe under Editor Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn. He went to Holy Cross Remote Control Primary School on Calder Street and Holyrood Secondary School in Crosshill, south-east Glasgow. In 1993 he left this role to become a speechwriter and policy adviser to the Labour leader John Smith.
Prior to becoming an Member of Parliament he worked in several advisory roles for Tony Blair, both in opposition and government, and was the Prime Minister"s Political Secretary from 2002.
McFadden was elected at the 2005 general election, after Dennis Turner retired. In the 2006 reshuffle he was appointed as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Exclusion at the Cabinet Office.
In the 2007 reshuffle he was promoted to Minister of State in the then newly created Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform with responsibility for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs. In October 2008, when Lord Mandelson 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, McFadden was named in interim leader Harriet Harman"s shadow cabinet as Shadow Business Secretary. After Editor Miliband"s election 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.
He retained his post when Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader but was sacked in January 2016.
According to McFadden he was sacked for comments in the debate on the Paris bombings which condemned "the view that sees terrorist acts as always being a response or a reaction to what we in the west do". The Labour leadership said that he had been sacked for "disloyalty", with John McDonnell saying that McFadden"s remarks on terrorism were an example of McFadden undermining the leader"s view.
Jonathan Reynolds and Stephen Doughty expressed support for McFadden in their resignation letters the following day. Hugh Muir Diary The Guardian, 19 May 2009
Baby boy for city Member of Parliament Pat Express & Star, 16 May 2009
Unions "too quiet on Labour wins" British Broadcasting Corporation News, 25 March 2009
Pat McFadden interview Politics Show, British Broadcasting Corporation News, 1 June 2008
Business boosts minimum wage campaign British Broadcasting Corporation News, 10 January 2008.
54th United Kingdom Parliament. 55th United Kingdom Parliament. 56th United Kingdom Parliament.