Nigel Griffiths was educated at Hawick High School in the Scottish Borders before attending the University of Edinburgh where he was awarded an MA in 1977.
He worked with Anita Roddick to establish The Big Issue in Scotland and set up the Wester Hailes Citizens Advice Bureau.
[3] Griffiths joined the Labour Party in 1970 and was elected as a councillor on the City of Edinburgh Council in 1980, a position in which he remained until he became a member of the House of Commons.
He subsequently launched a legal action against the newspaper for invading his privacy and obtaining the material that supported the allegations "in an extremely underhand way".
[9][10] In May 2009, The Daily Telegraph reported Griffiths had attempted to claim £3,600 for a television, DVD and digital radio to watch and listen to Scottish broadcasts.
[13] In January 2016 he "stole a march on his old ally Gordon Brown, unveiling an anti-EU poster as the former PM was preparing to launch the party’s Scottish campaign for staying in.