Write to Frank at:

69 Dee Street
Aberdeen
AB11 6EE

e-mail:

doranf@parliament.uk

phone:

01224 252715

website:

www.frankdoran.org.uk

Frank's Biography

My father was a seaman from Liverpool who became a painter and decorator.  He was a talented artist but his mother couldn't afford to send him to art college, and he was forced to leave school at 14, like so many of his generation.  He was a frustrated artist for the rest of his life.

My three younger sisters would probably say I was always naturally bossy!  I had a very happy childhood and was perfectly content if I had a ball and two jackets for goalposts.  I was good at school but I wasn't ambitious, which I regret.  I left school at 16, even though I was in the A stream, because most of my friends had started work and were earning.   

I went to the youth employment service and took a job with the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board - which I had never heard of .  Within a year I was promoted to junior clerk in the legal department, where I came under the wing of an Advocate called Douglas Nellands who was the Assistant Secretary of the Board.  Douglas encouraged my interest in law and I started doing night classes.  After a few years with the Board I decided to go to Dundee University.

It was a hard decision because by that time I was married with a child.  I met my wife at work and we married when I was 17.

At university, being in my early 20s and with work experience, I had a discipline that my 18 year old contemporaries lacked.I became President of the Law Society of Dundee University and got a good honours degree.

After university I stayed in Dundee and in 1978 a colleague and I set up our own legal business. I was involved in a few cases that became landmarks including employment and sex discrimination cases.

I found that every day was different as a lawyer and often unpredictable. The pressure was intense and as a result I always felt at my best in a crisis. I learned about the problems of running a business and to deal with any issue that came my way. Our business was a general practice and we dealt with all sorts of cases from crime to property, from company law to divorce.

Child care law was my legal specialism and when I moved into the private sector there were very few solicitors who operated in that area.  Child abuse and child neglect can be very upsetting, but I found the work very rewarding.  

I did not expect to be elected in 1987.  After trying to juggle the two jobs for a year after I was elected, I gave up the legal business and made politics my life.  Because I was a lawyer I spent a lot of time on committees and then in 1988 I was put on the front bench.

My defeat in 1992 was hard: one day you think you're going to be a minister and the next day you're out on your ear.

Every politician likes to think that they win a seat because of their personal charm and charisma; - but if you've been through it you know it's not true.  I was always convinced that I won the seat in 1987 because the oil price collapsed and the local economy in Aberdeen was devastated.  In 1992 Aberdeen was booming and I lost the seat.  I suffered an even more telling loss just three days before the election when my father died.

When I first arrived in the house in '87, I felt dreadfully unhappy and thought I had made a terrible mistake. It was such a lonely existence and because I was unprepared I was trying to deal with my business in Scotland and come to terms with the fact that I was a new MP. One of the sad things about being elected here was that it broke up my marriage after 23 years.

Joan Ruddock and I subsequently formed a relationship; Joan's support became extremely important to me when I lost my seat in '92.  After my defeat I had to decide whether to go back to law or stay in politics.  The decision was difficult because I knew that if I returned to the law that it would it would mean giving up politics and I enjoyed it too much. On the other hand, most people, having lost their seat, don't get back in.

I decided to opt for politics. I set up a little consultancy concentrating on the trade unions and the oil industry. I produced a regular report on trade union issues in the North Sea.

I was then asked by Bill Morris to come down to London and run the Trade Union Political Fund Ballot Campaign from Congress House. This was a new area for me and I will always be grateful for the opportunities and the contacts it gave me.

I was re-elected at the 1997 general election for the new constituency of Aberdeen Central, securing a majority of 10,801..

I was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Department of Trade and Industry Ian McCartney in 1997, and remained in position when McCartney transferred to the Cabinet Office in 1999 after which I became a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.

Following changes to the electoral boundaries in Scotland, the constituency of Aberdeen Central was abolished prior to the 2005 general election and in 2005 I was elected to represent the new Aberdeen North seat with a majority of 6,795 votes.

This win gave me the unique distinction of having represented Aberdeen South, Aberdeen Central and Aberdeen North during his parliamentary career.

I am currently the chairman of the Administration Select Committee, and in this role I also sits on the Finance and Services, Liaison and Works of Art committees.

I love the cinema and the theatre. One of the big advantages of growing up in Edinburgh was the Festival , and apart from the odd occasion, I have managed to get there every year for 30 years.

One of the problems with Westminster life is finding time to pursue leisure interests. I can't get to the cinema as often as I would like and so I started collecting my 100 favourite movies on video and I'm about three quarters of the way through. Like everyone else, I would choose Citizen Kane as my number one movie.