Richard Baker was elected Labour MP for Glenrothes and Mid Fife on 4 July 2024 with 15,994 votes and a majority of 2,954 (8.2 percent), defeating SNP incumbent Peter Grant. He is half of a political partnership that a transparency platform must state: his wife, Claire Baker, has been Labour MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife since 2007, a husband at Westminster and a wife at Holyrood both representing Labour in overlapping Fife territory.

He was not the original Labour candidate. Altany Craik, Fife Council's finance chief, had been selected but was dropped after Labour took concern at the adult content of his fantasy novels, reported as "too sexy and satanic," and Baker was chosen when the seat reopened.

Born in Edinburgh in May 1974 and a University of Aberdeen graduate, he was a Labour list MSP for North East Scotland from 2003 to 2016, nearly 13 years, holding Scottish Labour shadow portfolios in justice and finance and challenging for the Scottish Labour deputy leadership in 2015. He was not defeated at Holyrood; he chose to leave in January 2016 for a role with Age Scotland, and then spent eight years outside elected politics working for disability charities, including Enable, supporting people with learning disabilities and serving on charity boards, a record he calls a privilege.

The constituency covers Methil, Buckhaven, the Wemyss villages, Glenrothes, Cardenden, Lochgelly, Kelty and surrounding communities with proud mining heritage; Buckhaven and Methil contain the highest concentration of deprived communities in Fife. He has highlighted the Labour government's role in saving Methil Yard as a specific constituency achievement. At Westminster he sits on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. Reform UK took 3,528 votes (9.8 percent) and the SNP remained within striking distance.

Baker's strengths include nearly 13 years of Holyrood experience, Scottish Labour shadow justice and finance portfolios, a deputy leadership challenge in 2015 showing ambition, eight years of disability and older people's charity work, a PACAC placement, a wife who is an MSP providing dual political knowledge of Fife, and specific constituency delivery (Methil Yard). His weaknesses include a 2,954 majority making this one of Scottish Labour's more fragile gains, selection only after the original candidate was dropped, no ministerial office, no legislative achievement, and the structural question of whether a husband and wife team covering the same political territory at two different parliaments creates accountability issues. At 51, he has both the Holyrood experience and the charity sector perspective to be effective. Whether Westminster uses what he learned in 13 years at Holyrood and eight years with disability charities will determine whether his comeback amounts to more than a seat recovered.