Douglas Alexander returns to parliament

Former Labour cabinet minister Douglas Alexander is returning to Westminster, having won in Lothian East.

He took the seat from the SNP, winning 49% of the vote to their 21.4%.

Mr Alexander was the MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South from 1997 until he was defeated in 2015 by the SNP's Mhairi Black.

The former cabinet minister served as Secretary of State for Scotland.

The Lothian East constituency was previously represented by Kenny MacAskill, who was elected for the SNP in 2019 but defected to the Alba party in 2021. He did not stand for re-election.

Since losing his seat Mr Alexander has pursued a career in academia - working as a visiting professor at New York University and King's College London.

Last May he accompanied the singer Bono and his bandmate The Edge on a visit to war-torn Ukraine.

He was approached by Lothian East party members in 2022 to ask if he would consider standing.

He said at the time that he had not anticipated stepping back into public life.