Analysis: Outspoken Kevin Macintosh is no stranger to controversy

He had defied the polls just months earlier at the Scottish Parliament election, overturning a nominal Tory lead to win the Eastwood constituency and continue his unbroken presence at Holyrood.

During the campaign he laughed off a potentially embarrassing intervention by UK leader Ed Miliband. Asked in an interview to list the Scottish leadership candidates, Mr Miliband was unable to name Mr Macintosh.

The 49-year-old was previously a producer for BBC News. He is a history graduate of Edinburgh University. He served as Labour spokesman for schools and skills before being appointed culture spokesman. He has since been promoted to take on the education brief on Labour’s frontbench, and sits on Holyrood’s education committee. He lives in Busby, East Renfrewshire, with his wife and their children.

He has been withering in his criticism of the Holyrood election defeat in May, describing the Labour campaign as “disastrous”.

Launching his campaign in October, Mr Macintosh outlined policies he hopes to bring forward. They include bringing the railways back into public ownership.

During the campaign he was backed by more than 90 per cent of students who registered their support for the candidates.

He also claimed the support of those who had initially backed fellow challenger Tom Harris MP.

Mr Macintosh, who describes himself as a “devolutionist”, not a “unionist”, also has a reputation for mounting scathing attacks on opponents in parliament.

He has attacked SNP plans for a Scottish studies school subject, claiming that it is “just the SNP trying to brainwash children into their political view”.

He was at the centre of one of the major controversies that engulfed Scotland’s justice system in recent years, the Shirley McKie affair, when he moved to support three fingerprint experts who were his constituents, at a time when the service was under fire.

He considered running for Labour leader last time, but instead backed Andy Kerr.