From 1973 to 1974, Davidson was Chair of the National Organisation of Labour Students. He served as a councillor on Strathclyde Regional Council from 1978 to 1992, and was convenor of its education committee. He became an MP in 1992, originally for the seat of Glasgow Govan and, following boundary changes, for Glasgow Pollok from 1997 to 2005. After further major boundary changes across Scotland, Davidson stood in the 2005 general election for the new constituency of Glasgow South West, where he won the second biggest swing to Labour in Scotland. He was a member of the Public AccountsSelect committee and has lobbied to support the Scottish shipbuilding industry. He was also secretary of the Trade Union Group of Labour MPs. In 2002 he criticised Prince Michael of Kent for 'squatting' in Kensington Palace. More recently he has criticised the Prince of Wales over his personal finances. He was the chair of Labour Against the Euro before it ceased campaigning following the 2003 decision by Gordon Brown that the five economic tests for Britain to join the euro had not been met. During the debate in the House of Commons over the decision whether to have a referendum over the EUTreaty of Lisbon, Davidson drew jeers from his Labour colleagues for branding New Labour supporters "Maoists and Trotskyists". Davidson was putting forward the case for disobeying the party line and voting for a referendum. During the 2009–10 Expenses Scandal, it emerged that Davidson claimed £87,699 in the four years to 2007, significantly below the maximum permitted. He served as chair of the Scotland Office Select committee from 2010 to 2015. In June 2011, he accused the Scottish National Party of "narrow neo-fascism". The choice of language resulted in the Labour Party distancing itself from Davidson's comments, saying the use of the word "neo-fascist" was unacceptable, even in the heat of debate, and Angus Robertson to call on him to resign as chair of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee. He is a supporter of Republic, a campaign to replace the British Monarchy with an elected head of state. In May 2015 he lost his seat to Chris Stephens of the SNP. Davidson indicated that he may support Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, and indeed he later took up a key role in Vote Leave. In April 2017, Davidson announced his intention to stand in the 2017 General Election in the Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk seat. He was chosen because of his close personal connections with the area, having been born and raised nearby. He was unsuccessful but increased the Labour vote enough to secure the party's deposit, which had been lost by the party's candidate in the previous election. Davidson saw his party's vote rise by 67% to 4,519 or 8.6% of the vote. In October 2019, following the announcement of a December general election, he was reselected as Labour's candidate, but failed to win the seat.
Personal life
Davidson has been married to Morag Mackinnon since 1978 and they have a son and a daughter. Since leaving parliament in 2015, Davidson has started swimming competitively, winning a series of medals in the Masters Swimming competitions.
