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Jack Wilson McConnell, Baron McConnell of Glenscorrodale, (born 30 June 1960) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 2001 to 2007. McConnell served as the Minister for Finance from 1999 to 2000 and Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs from 2000 to 2001. He has been a Scottish Labour life peer in the House of Lords since 2010 and previously served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Motherwell and Wishaw from 1999 to 2011. McConnell held the REGLEG (REGLEG) during November 2003 to November 2004.
Born in Irvine, Ayrshire, McConnell studied at the University of Stirling and worked as a mathematics teacher at Lornshill Academy. His political career began when he was elected to Stirling Council, while he was still teaching. He served as a member of the Scottish Constitutional Convention, having campaigned in favour of a Scottish Parliament in the 1997 devolution referendum. Elected to serve as an MSP for the Motherwell and Wishaw constituency in the 1999 Scottish Parliament election, McConnell was appointed Minister for Finance under the Donald Dewar Dewar government. After Dewar's death in 2000, he ran unsuccessfully for the leadership of the Labour Party in Scotland, having been defeated by Henry McLeish. McLeish appointed McConnell as Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs.
In 2001, McLeish resigned in the aftermath of the Officegate and McConnell was elected unopposed as the Scottish Labour leader. He was appointed First Minister on 22 November 2001, becoming the youngest office holder. As first minister, he implemented a ban on smoking in public places, signed a Co-operation Agreement with Malawi, and successfully bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games to be hosted in Glasgow. In the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, the Labour Party in Scotland became the second largest party, with the SNP having one seat more. This therefore lead to McConnell losing office, becoming the first (and as of 2025, only) First Minister to have been defeated in office, and as of 2025, the last Scottish Labour First Minister of Scotland in office.
After losing office as first minister, McConnell sat as the Leader of the Opposition in Holyrood, until his resignation as leader. He sat as a backbencher and stood down as an MSP in the 2011 election. In 2010, McConnell became a member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom. He made a commitment to continuing his work to tackle poverty in Africa and to develop the relationship between Scotland and Malawi.
McConnell attended the University of Stirling, where he was President of the Students' Association from 1980 to 1982 and National Union of Students Scotland Vice-President from 1982 to 1983. He met Margo MacDonald and Richard Leonard at university. In the late 1970s, he occupied the principal's office in protest against student homelessness. He also took part in a siege to occupy the administration offices at the university and slept in sleeping bags in the university’s court room. He graduated in 1983 with a B.Sc. Dip.Ed.
From 1992 to 1998, McConnell served as the General Secretary of the Labour Party in Scotland. His major breakthrough was in his handling of the 1997 General Election success, where Labour attained a large overall majority victory over the Conservatives. Together the Labour Party in Scotland, the Scottish Liberal Democrats, and the Scottish National Party eliminated every seat the Conservatives held in Scotland. In 1998, he served as a member of the Scottish Constitutional Convention where he pioneered the Scottish devolution referendum success, establishing the Scottish Parliament.
As a strong proponent of Scottish devolution, McConnell helped push for reform. Between 1989 and 1998 he was a member of the Scottish Constitutional Convention, where he was playing an important role in the creation of the Scotland Act, which created a Scottish Parliament for the first time.
McConnell was elected an MSP in the first Scottish Parliament elections in 1999. He was appointed Minister for Finance in the new Scottish Executive by then First Minister Donald Dewar. One of his first moves as Finance Minister was to establish the budgeting procedures for the new Scottish Executive, including publishing a consultation document asking the public and MSPs how the budget should be spent. His department also passed the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000 through Parliament, which set out the finance and auditing procedures of the Executive.
McLeish appointed him Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs. Some analysts considered this post to be a "poisoned chalice", as he would be required to resolve both a crisis in the Scottish Qualifications Authority over exam marking, and pay disputes with the teaching unions.
McConnell emerged as the only candidate and on 17 November, he was officially elected unopposed as Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland after receiving the support of 97.23% of MSPs. In his acceptance speech, he stated he was "deeply honoured to receive such overwhelming support" and highlighted that much work still needed to be done "to make devolution a success" and achieve "first class public services".
Following the appointment of his first government, McConnell used the first meeting of his newly formed Scottish cabinet that he intended for his administration to focus on the priorities of both the country and its people, pledging for unnecessary distractions to be avoided. Speaking during the first meeting of his cabinet, McConnell told his ministerial team he wished for them to "get rid of unnecessary paperwork and diversions" in order for ministers to be able to focus on the "key areas". McConnell also advised his cabinet that he was not seeking a large volume of new initiatives and policies for his administration, but rather that he remained committed to the policy areas of the previous administration. A spokesperson for the Scottish Executive said that McConnell had told his cabinet for the need to "focus on delivering what is already there" as he felt it was important that his administration "makes sure we are delivering on the targets that have been set".
One of the earliest announcements by the new executive under McConnell was the ability for the Scottish Parliament to raise or lower income tax by up to 3p in the Pound sterling would not be invoked under a McConnell administration. McConnell announced that under his premiership, the Scottish Executive would not change its position on issues such as private involvement in public services, proportional representation for local government elections and the financial independence of the Scottish Parliament.
He was a strong advocate for teachers in Scotland to have the ability to move between primary and secondary schools to aid the transition process of children from primary school to secondary school. One of McConnell's spokesperson said that McConnell had been driven to implement policy changes on the backdrop of "children making the transition can have some problems. The first minister will be setting out the first steps towards addressing what is a problem that has been around for as long as we can remember".
In November 2002, McConnell announced plans that would allow Head Teachers in Scotland to have more authority in regards to setting their own standards and priorities for their respective schools.
Although the bid lost out to Austrian and Switzerland joint bid, McConnell later supported other attempts to land major supporting events including London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympic Games and Glasgow's bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. In December 2005, Glasgow formally launched its candidacy to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The launch of the bid was attended by McConnell alongside the leader of Glasgow City Council Steven Purcell at Hampden Park. Speaking at the launch, McConnell acknowledged that Scotland was the "first country to declare its interest in hosting the games" and additionally was the "first country to nominate its preferred city". Glasgow was selected by Commonwealth Games Scotland over Edinburgh, who had previously hosted the 1970 and 1986 edition of the games.
This was followed by the “Fresh Talent initiative” which was created and developed to focus at addressing the demographic decline in Scotland and ageing Scottish population by attracting young and skilled immigrants, primarily from other European Union countries (such as Poland and Slovakia primarily) to be attracted to Scotland as a place to live and work.
The Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005 was formally ratified in Scots law on 26 March 2006.
McConnell's demands for the UK Government to pay the costs of policing and security were met with opposition from HM Treasury, and it was later revealed that the treasury provided only £20 million towards the cost. In the months prior to the summit, the Scottish Executive expressed their concerns over the associated costs of hosting the event and a "potentially very serious situation" due to the fact that costs associated with the summit "would inevitably be in the public domain". It was suggested that the Scottish Executive would launch a formal dispute with the UK Government in response to any perceived lack of progress over funding the summit.
Despite assurances to the Scottish Parliament in May 2005 that the cost of hosting the G8 summit "would be nowhere near £100 million", overall cost of hosting the event was estimated to be £90.9 million. In addition to the £20 million contributed by HM Treasury, the Foreign Office contributed £10 million whilst the Scottish Executive was expected to pay the remaining £65 million.
Despite concerns over the cost and disagreement with the UK Government over funding, McConnell attended the summit held between 6–8 July 2005 and welcomed international leaders who were invited to the conference to Glasgow Prestwick Airport on arrival.
As Leader of the Opposition in Holyrood, McConnell took part in First Minister's Questions (FMQs). In one session of FMQs, he claimed the new SNP administration was making several U-turns on Edinburgh Trams and its position on student debt and council taxes.
He is a UK Ambassador for Action for Children; a Fellow of the 48 Group Club, which promotes relationships between the United Kingdom and China and an Ambassador for Pump Aid. On 8 March 2012, Optical Express announced the appointment of Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale joining the Board as non executive director. He was a non executive director at DCM (Optical Holdings) from 2011 to 2015. As of 30 November 2018, McConnell holds the position of Chancellor at the University of Stirling.
On 31 October 2024, it was announced that McConnell would lead a Black Sea regeneration group.
In 2016, McConnell refused to bail out his sister, Anne McConnell, who was jailed for stealing £9,000 from a disabled pensioner's bank account. She told police she needed money to pay her Mortgage loan and blamed her crime on her menopause and hoped "Jack would help her pay it back".
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