page_title: Iain Gray
hierarchical_section_title: Iain Gray
caption_attribution_description: English: 3x4 cropped version of IainGray2009.jpg. Adapted under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
context_page_description: Iain Cumming Gray is a Scottish Labour Party politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2008 until 2011. He has been Member of the Scottish Parliament for the East Lothian constituency since 2007, having previously represented Edinburgh Pentlands from 1999 to 2003.
  A former aid worker and teacher of mathematics and physics, Gray was first elected to the devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999 as MSP for the Edinburgh Pentlands constituency, which he lost to Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party David McLetchie in 2003. Gray was returned to Holyrood in 2007 as MSP for East Lothian. Following Wendy Alexander's resignation as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party in 2008, Gray stood at the subsequent leadership election, and was elected with a 57.8% share of the vote in the second round.
context_section_description: Iain Cumming Gray (born 7 June 1957) is a Scottish Labour Party politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2008 until 2011. He has been Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the East Lothian constituency since 2007, having previously represented Edinburgh Pentlands from 1999 to 2003.
  A former aid worker and teacher of mathematics and physics, Gray was first elected to the devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999 as MSP for the Edinburgh Pentlands constituency, which he lost to Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party David McLetchie in 2003. Gray was returned to Holyrood in 2007 as MSP for East Lothian. Following Wendy Alexander's resignation as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party in 2008, Gray stood at the subsequent leadership election, and was elected with a 57.8% share of the vote in the second round.
  Initially, Gray oversaw some electoral successes for Scottish Labour, such as repelling SNP challenges at the Glenrothes (2008) and Glasgow North East (2009) by-elections, as well as seeing Scottish Labour retain all their 41 seats in the House of Commons at the 2010 general election; despite the election overall resulting in the first UK hung parliament in 36 years, and the Labour Party being defeated after thirteen years in government. The 2011 Scottish Parliament elections proved disastrous for the party, which lost 20 seats as the SNP won an outright majority of seats. Gray himself was only re-elected as MSP for East Lothian with a narrow majority of 151 votes. Gray announced his resignation the day after the result, but remained in post as leader until his successor, Johann Lamont, took over on 17 December 2011.
  Due to his experience, Gray was appointed as Acting Leader of the Scottish Labour Party while a leadership and a deputy leadership election were being simultaneously held, on account of deputy leader Kezia Dugdale resigning to run for the leadership and the resignation of previous leader Jim Murphy after Scottish Labour's landslide defeat at the 2015 general election; where it lost 40 of its 41 seats to the SNP and Murphy himself lost his East Renfrewshire seat to the SNP's Kirsten Oswald.
caption: Gray in 2008
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