He attended Dundee High School, Craigflower School in Fife, and Loretto School, Musselburgh. He then gained a BA in English from Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

Andrew joined The Scotsman as a trainee and junior business reporter in 1981. He became parliamentary correspondent in 1984 and political correspondent in 1986.

He worked for two years at The Independent then returned to The Scotsman as political editor in 1986. He moved to become political editor at The Economist from 1988-92 then returned to The Independent as chief political commentator in 1992 and was promoted to editor in 1996.

He became a columnist for The Express and The Observer in 1998 before being appointed as BBC political editor in May 2000.

Andrew has had three books published: The Battle for Scotland (Penguin, 1992); Ruling Britannia (Penguin, 1996, 1998) and The Day Britain Died (Profile, 2000). Broadcasting includes series on contemporary thinkers for BBC Two and Radio Four, and political documentaries for Channel 4 and BBC Panorama.

He was named Columnist of the Year in the What the Papers Say Awards of 1995 and Columnist of the Year in British Press Awards of the same year.

He was named Journalist of the Year in the Creative Freedom Awards 2000 and received the Journalist Award in the Channel 4 Political Awards of 2001.

Andrew was named as the best individual contributor on television at the Voice Of The Listener And Viewer's Annual awards 2002

Andrew lists his hobbies as reading (he was the chair of judges for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2001), painting, cooking and remembering his children's names.