Pat McFadden was born in Paisley in 1965 and grew up in Glasgow, the youngest of seven children. He went to Holy Cross Primary school and later to Holyrood Secondary School.

After leaving school he studied politics at Edinburgh University.

He worked as a research assistant to the late Donald Dewar MP who was then Labour’s Scottish affairs spokesman between 1988 and 1993. In 1993 he left to work as a speechwriter and policy adviser to the late John Smith MP, then Labour leader.

When Tony Blair was elected Labour leader in 1994, Pat was asked to stay on to work in a variety of posts for Mr Blair including Policy Adviser both in opposition and in 10 Downing Street and he later served as the Prime Minister’s Political Secretary.

In 2005 he was selected to fight the constituency of Wolverhampton South-East where he succeeded Dennis Turner who retired after representing the constituency for 18 years.

In May 2006 he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State to the Cabinet Office as Minister for Social Exclusion.

In July 2007 he was appointed Minister of State for Employment Relations and Postal Policy at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.