Blair McDougall.

Elected in 2024, Blair McDougall has since been appointed Minister for Small Business and Economic Transformation — a role that dominated his recent news coverage when, in March 2026, he led what the government billed as the toughest crackdown on late payments in over 25 years, requiring companies to pay suppliers within 60 days or face fines. His most notable parliamentary moment, however, came in June 2025, when he broke from the Labour majority four times on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill — voting against Third Reading, against two amendments backed by his party, and for a new clause that would have barred people from qualifying for assisted dying if their wish was substantially driven by fear of being a burden, financial pressures, or a disability unrelated to their terminal illness. His voting pattern on the bill places him among the more sceptical Labour MPs on assisted dying access, sitting 47 percentage points below his party's average on that measure.

At 73% voting participation, McDougall is somewhat below the Commons average, which partly reflects the demands of a ministerial role. Where he does vote, he is a 97% party-line MP — reliable on fiscal responsibility, progressive taxation, and workers' rights, but distinctly less aligned on crime, welfare expansion, and parliamentary scrutiny. His speeches cluster around economy and jobs (50 contributions), defence (34), and local government (18), consistent with his ministerial brief and a constituency in Scotland that sits outside the England-and-Wales jurisdictions of several major bills he votes on.

His deviation from party norms is narrowly concentrated: assisted dying is where McDougall stands out, alongside a slightly stronger-than-average lean toward disability rights framing. He holds no select committee seats. News sentiment outside his ministerial work is broadly neutral, with crime and education generating coverage but no strong positive or negative signal.