David Mundell

Mundell was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and 2003 as a list MSP for the South of Scotland.

In the 2005 general election, Mundell was elected as MP for the Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale constituency.[9] Following his election to Westminster, Mundell resigned from the Scottish Parliament in June 2005. His seat was taken by Derek Brownlee, who was next on the Conservatives' South of Scotland candidate list.[10] As the sole Conservative Scottish parliamentary representative, David Cameron (as Leader of HM Opposition) appointed him Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland in December 2005.

Mundell was among the 18 MPs (either Scottish or representing Scottish constituencies) who supported the Commons Motion stating football "should not be any different from other competing sports and our young talent should be allowed to show their skills on the world stage", thereby endorsing the idea of Team GB entering a British football team in the London 2012 Olympics. Football's governing bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland oppose a Great Britain team, fearing it would stop them competing as individual nations in future tournaments.[11]

Mundell represented the Scottish Conservative Party at the three Scottish Leaders' Debates broadcast on ITV1, Sky News and BBC1 during the 2010 general election campaign.

Mundell retained his seat at the 2019 general election with a reduced majority.[12][13]

On 6 June, Mundell voted no confidence in Prime Minister Johnson.

Before the 2010 general election, Mundell served as the Conservative Shadow Scottish Secretary. Following that election, the Conservative Party formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. He held the non-cabinet role of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland, since the office of Secretary of State for Scotland was given to Liberal Democrat MP Danny Alexander (then Michael Moore and Alistair Carmichael), in view of the Liberal Democrats' greater representation of Scottish seats. On 9 June 2010, Mundell was appointed a Privy Counsellor.[14][15]

Mundell was returned to Parliament at the 2015 general election with a much reduced majority of 798 votes (1.5%), although the Conservative Party's share of the vote increased by 1.8%.[16] He succeeded Liberal Democrat Alistair Carmichael as Secretary of State for Scotland. In the referendum on EU membership of June 2016, Mundell supported Britain remaining within the EU.[17] Following it, he became a part-time member of the cabinet committee working on strategies for Brexit.[18] He was the only Conservative MP to represent a Scottish constituency in the 56th parliament (2015–2017), but was joined by a further twelve in the 2017 snap general election. Following the election of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, Mundell was sacked from his role and went to the backbenches for the first time since he was elected as an MP.

In 2015, Mundell opened a food bank in the Dumfries and Galloway constituency, which adjoins his own and was at the time represented by the Scottish National Party's Richard Arkless. After the opening, Mundell was escorted from an angry anti-austerity demonstration by police.[19] Mundell, who had previously denied that welfare reform changes were behind the increased demand for food banks, was accused of hypocrisy by opponents who said the opening was "nothing to celebrate". Mundell said he was willing to work with all local organisations who wanted to eradicate poverty.[2]

On 23 August 2021, Boris Johnson appointed Mundell as the UK's trade envoy to New Zealand.[20] On 6 July 2022, he resigned from his position as Trade Envoy following the Chris Pincher scandal, amid the July 2022 United Kingdom government crisis.[21]