John David Cairns (7 August 1966 – 9 May 2011) was a Scottish politician who served as Minister of State for Scotland from 2005 to 2008.

[1] He attended Notre Dame High School in the town, before training for the Roman Catholic priesthood at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

[6] Cairns was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions Malcolm Wicks in 2003, and following the 2005 general election, at which, due to the redrawing of boundaries his constituency was abolished and replaced with a larger Inverclyde constituency, he became a member of the Labour government as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland.

[7] Cairns was Chair of Labour Friends of Israel, and while he gave up the position when becoming a junior minister, he remained a committed member of the group.

[13][11][14] In March 2011, Cairns was hospitalised in London for acute pancreatitis,[15] and died at Royal Free Hospital on 9 May 2011, at the age of 44.