UK NEWS

SUSPICIOUS FIRE AT LABOUR MP'S HOUSE

Home fire: Douglas Alexander

Wednesday September 5,2007

By Stephen Wilkie

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A MAJOR investigation was launched yesterday after a suspicious early morning fire at the home of Labour high-flier Douglas Alexander.

The former Scottish Secretary — currently International Development Secretary — was not at the house in upmarket Houston, Renfrewshire, when it erupted in flames.

News of the blaze was broken to the 39-year-old MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South at the London home he shares with his wife and two young children.

Strathclyde Police detectives and fire-raising investigators from Strathclyde Fire and Rescue, were combing the house and surrounding rural area for clues yesterday.

It is believed the fire in the detached, whitewashed house started in the kitchen at around 7am and was quickly brought under control and doused by firefighters.

Last night police said they were treating the cause as 'suspicious’ while carrying out further inquiries.

Mr Alexander, whose MSP sister Wendy became Scottish Labour leader last month, uses the 120-year-old two-storey house when he is in Scotland on constituency business.

The building stands just hundreds of yards from the house rented by terrorists who failed in a suicide bomb attack on Glasgow Airport on June 30, but there is no suggestion of any link at this stage in the investigation.

The area around the house was cordoned off while specialist investigators probed the scene for signs of deliberate fire-raising.

Fire crews spent several hours at the house in case of further outbreaks and gas engineers were called in to isolate the supply.

A spokesman at Mr Alexander’s constituency office in nearby Paisley said they had spoken to the MP: "He said everyone was fine and that there was no need to worry."

A neighbour said: "We realised it was the Alexanders' house but I haven’t seen him for a few days. He is usually in London during the week."

A spokesman for Strathclyde Fire and Rescue said: "Two firefighters wearing breathing apparatus searched the premises and colleagues were sent in as a back up but there was nobody in the property at the time."