His father was a school caretaker and his mother had a newsagents shop, which sparked his (later) interest in how to run businesses.

At the age of 24, he studied at Paisley College of Technology (now the University of the West of Scotland) receiving a BSc in chemistry.

In 1977, he wanted to widen his knowledge away from science and obtained a BA from the Open University in education and philosophy.

[2] On 17 June 2010, he was created a life peer as Baron McFall of Alcluith, of Dumbarton in Dunbartonshire,[3] and was introduced in the House of Lords on 6 July 2010.

Lord McFall stated he was making no direct criticism of recent peerage choices, but the upper house was in danger of becoming "out of sync" with its balance of legislators.

McFall planned to meet Rishi Sunak to lift a cap limiting the number of new, non-party expert peers that can be created by the House of Lords Appointments Commission, currently set at a maximum of two a year.

He gave his backing to Dumpster Kids, a not-for-profit organisation aimed at rescuing abandoned children, in January 2011.