Allan Hopkins Dorans (born 30 July 1955) is a

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

(SNP) politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for

Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created for the 2005 general election from parts of the old Ayr and Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley const ...

from 2019 until his eventual electoral defeat at the 2024 general election. Dorans was made a Companion of the Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in 1990 and a member of the

Chartered Management Institute The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) is a professional institution for management based in the United Kingdom. It was founded as the British Institute of Management (BIM) in 1947 or 1948, merged with the Institution of Industrial Managers (I ...

(MCMI) in 2000.

Early life and career

Allan Dorans was born on 30 July 1955 in

Dailly Dailly () is a village in South Ayrshire, Scotland. It is located on the Water of Girvan, south of Maybole, and east of Old Dailly. "New Dailly", as it was originally known, was laid out in the 1760s as a coal-mining village. In 1849 a fire br ...

South Ayrshire South Ayrshire (; , ) is one of thirty-two council areas of Scotland, covering the southern part of Ayrshire. It borders onto Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire and North Ayrshire. South Ayrshire had an estimated population in 2021 of 112,45 ...

, the son of Peter Dorans DCM and Agnes Dorans, the youngest of nine children. He was educated at Carrick Academy in

Maybole Maybole (, ) is a town and former burgh of barony and police burgh in South Ayrshire, Scotland. It had an estimated population of in . It is situated south of Ayr and southwest of Glasgow by the Glasgow and South Western Railway. The town is ...

, before studying at the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

and at the

University of the West of Scotland The University of the West of Scotland (), formerly the University of Paisley, is a public university with four campuses in south-western Scotland, in the towns of Paisley, Blantyre, Dumfries and Ayr, as well as a campus in London, England. T ...

, gaining a diploma in public service leadership. After university, Dorans joined the Metropolitan Police and reached the rank of detective inspector by the age of 28, serving with the force from 1972 to 1987. During that time he was a uniform response officer as a constable, sergeant and inspector. He also served as a detective in the rank of constable, sergeant and inspector, specialising in the investigation of the most serious crimes of rape, robbery and murder. He completed his career in the Metropolitan Police as an instructor at the Detective Training School at Hendon. From 2002 to 2003, he was a substitute teacher at Cape Elizabeth High School in

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Dorans was an area manager for the West of Scotland with SACRO, a leading Scottish community safety charity from 2003 to 2009. He was also managing director of West of Scotland Mediation Services from 2009 to 2013. Dorans was first elected to South Ayrshire Council in 2012 for the SNP in Ayr West ward, then appointed in 2014 as SNP Group Leader. He was defeated in 2017.

Parliamentary career

At the 2019 general election, Dorans was elected to Parliament as MP for

with 43.5% of the vote and a majority of 2,329. He was appointed as the Shadow SNP Spokesperson for Policing on 10 February 2021. He was a member of the Standards Committee, Privileges Committee and the

European Scrutiny Committee The European Scrutiny Committee was a Select committee (United Kingdom), select committee of the British House of Commons, House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Following Britain's withdrawal from the European Union in January ...

. Dorans is a leading campaigner for “Justice for Yvonne”, which is a campaign led by his former police colleague, John Murray, to bring to justice those responsible for the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, who was shot in the back and murdered outside the Libyan Peoples Bureau on 17 April 1984. Dorans raised the issue at

Prime Minister's Questions Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs, officially known as Questions to the Prime Minister, while colloquially known as Prime Minister's Question Time) is a constitutional convention (political custom), constitutional convention in the United Kingd ...

in July 2020. On 22 February 2022 Dorans secured and led an adjournment debate on that subject in the House of Commons. On 7th December 2022 he again raised the subject of the murder of WPC Fletcher at Prime Ministers Questions with the recently elected Prime Minister,

Rishi Sunak Rishi Sunak (born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2022 to 2024. Following his defeat to Keir Starmer's La ...

, who has agreed to meet with him to see how this matter may be taken forward. At the 2024 general election, Dorans lost his seat to the Labour candidate Elaine Stewart. He has been selected to be a candidate in the 2026 Scottish Parliament election.

Personal life

In 1979, he married Maureen Beeson; the couple have a son and two grandsons. He lists his recreations as

trekking Backpacking is the outdoor recreation of carrying gear on one's back while hiking for more than a day. It is often an extended journey and may involve camping outdoors. In North America, tenting is common, where simple shelters and mountain hu ...

and "undertaking challenging events to raise funds for charitable causes".

References

External links

* Living people Scottish National Party MPs UK MPs 2019–2024 Scottish National Party councillors Scottish police officers Metropolitan Police officers People from Dailly 1955 births {{UK-MP-2019-stub