Early Life
Cairns was born and raised in Greenock. He attended Notre Dame High School in the town, before training for the Roman Catholic priesthood at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He continued his studies at the Franciscan International Centre in Canterbury.
From 1991 he served as a priest in Scotland and in London before politics drew him to leave the priesthood in 1994 to become a director of the Christian Socialist Movement. In 1997 he became a research assistant to then newly-elected Labour MP, Siobhain McDonagh until he himself became an MP in 2001. In 1998 he was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Merton where he served until 2002.
Read more about this topic: David Cairns (politician)
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