David was the UK’s longest serving Member of the European Parliament before the UK left the EU, representing Scotland from 1984-2019.

During his time in the European Parliament David’s work focused on trade and development, human rights and constitutional affairs. He authored over one hundred reports for the Parliament including those on the Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties, the high-profile Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, and the Singapore Free Trade Agreement. For 15 years from 1989-2004 David was also the European Parliament’s Vice-President during which time he drove through reform of the Parliament’s working methods and helped modernise its staff structure.

David has served on the National Executive and Scottish Executive of the Labour Party and has played a key role in a number of Labour Party policy reviews.

Since leaving the European Parliament he has taken up a number of academic posts including as a Visiting Professor at the University of Glasgow and Senior Fellow at the RSIS in Singapore. He is a Member of the First Minister of Scotland’s Standing Council on Europe. He is President of the European Movement in Scotland and a member of the Scottish Environmental Standards advisory panel.