He was first made a Member of Parliament at the 1997 General Election for the Eastwood constituency. He has been the East Renfrewshire MP from 2005 onwards. He held two cabinet posts: Minister of State for Europe (June 2007-October 2008) and Secretary of State for Scotland (October 2008-May 2010). He was made the shadow Secretary of State for Defence in October 2010. He became the Shadow Secretary of State for International Development in 2013. He resigned from this job in November 2014 because he wanted to be the leader of the Scottish Labour Party.