Early Life
Nigel Griffiths was educated at Hawick High School on Buccleuch Road in Hawick in the Scottish Borders before attending the University of Edinburgh where he was awarded an MA in 1977. He finished his education at Moray House College of Education (now the Moray House School of Education on Holyrood Road at the University of Edinburgh) in Edinburgh in 1978. He was president of the University of Edinburgh Labour Group in 1976, where he first met and supported Gordon Brown, who was then the student elected Rector of the University. In 1978, he worked as a secretary to the Lothian Development Council, before becoming a welfare rights worker with a pressure group working on behalf of people with learning disabilities in 1979, he remained in this position until his election to Parliament.
He worked with Anita Roddick to found The Big Issue in Scotland and set up the Wester Hailes Citizens Advice Bureau. He is a member of Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth, and the Ramblers' Association.
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