Jim Devine - Parliamentary Career

Parliamentary Career

He was selected to follow Cook as Labour candidate in the ensuing 2005 Livingston by-election. He won, defeating his SNP rival though Labour's majority was reduced by more than 10,000. He made his maiden speech on 25 October 2005.

He served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Health Minister Rosie Winterton until he resigned in protest at the decision to replace Trident. He was also a member of the Science and Technology as well as the Scottish Affairs Select Committees.

In October 2010 Devine's former office manager Marion Kinley won a complaint of unfair dismissal and breach of contract against him. An employment tribunal ruled that Devine had subjected Kinley to "a course of bullying and harassment". During the hearing Devine was accused of perpetrating a hoax suggesting that newspapers were investigating the two of them. He was said to have used a friend, Fiona Fox, to pose as an investigative journalist. Compensation of £35,000 was ordered to be paid.

On Devine's failure to pay the compensation of £35,000, bankruptcy proceedings were instituted against him and he was adjudicated bankrupt on 23 February 2011.