Blair McDougall has worked in political strategy and campaigning for twenty five years. Starting as an election organiser, he went on to manage campaigns for the Scottish Labour Party. He was a Special Adviser in the Governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, working across five government departments, including the UK’s Foreign Office. He was elected as Member of Parliament for East Renfrewshire in 2024.
Blair was the Chief Executive and Campaign Director for Better Together, the winning campaign during the 2014 referendum on whether Scotland should leave the United Kingdom. He has run general election campaigns, written election manifestos, and developed campaign strategies. He has also served on the National Executive Committee of the UK’s Labour Party.
Blair lived and worked in Rwanda as a governance adviser in the office of the President and now works with political parties, human rights campaigners and activists in post-conflict and emerging democratic societies. He has worked with democrats in Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Ethiopia, Georgia, Kyrgystan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, North Macedonia, and Ukraine. Blair sits on the UK’s advisory board for the World Uyghur Congress.