In profile: meet your SNP Westminster Leadership team
by Following the General Election, the SNP at Westminster have elected a new Group Leader and Depute Leader. With the SNP group in the last parliament proving to be the hardest working politicians at Westminster, our new leadership team will ensure once again that Scotland’s voice is heard.
Meet your new SNP leadership team at Westminster.
Ian Blackford | Group Leader
Constituency: Ross, Skye and Lochaber
Ian Blackford joined the SNP aged sixteen and previously served as the party’s National Treasurer. After a long career in the financial sector, he established his own consultancy business which he ran from Skye.
Elected as an SNP MP in 2015, Ian became the SNP Pensions Spokesperson and has championed the cause of the WASPI women, fighting for women born in the 1950s to receive the pensions they are due. Ian was also a tireless campaigner for the Brain family from his constituency, and succeeded in fighting the Tories unfair immigration system to protect their right to stay in Scotland.
Elected SNP Group Leader shortly after the General Election, Ian will hold the Tory government to account and challenge the Prime Minister weekly at PMQs. Already Ian has been at the forefront of exposing Scottish Secretary David Mundell’s failure to stand up for Scotland in the grubby £1 billion deal with the DUP.
@IanBlackfordMP exposes David Mundell’s failure to stand up for Scotland and oppose Theresa May’s grubby deal with the DUP. #PMQs pic.twitter.com/UTe5NZyr4u
— The SNP (@theSNP) June 28, 2017
Kirsty Blackman | Depute Group Leader
Constituency: Aberdeen North
A former care worker and Aberdeen City Council employee, Kirsty served as an SNP Councillor on Aberdeen City Council for eight years before being elected as MP for Aberdeen North in 2015.
During the previous parliament Kirsty served on the Scottish Affairs Select Committee and worked as part of the SNP’s economy team – helping expose the damaging effects of the Tory obsession with austerity.
Kirsty has also worked to drag the out of date Westminster establishment into the 21st century and called for changes in order to make parliament a more family friendly working environment. Read more on this here.
As SNP Depute Group Leader Kirsty will also serve as SNP Spokesperson on the Economy – the first woman to lead in the House of Commons as the main economics spokesperson for a major political party. Kirsty will now challenge the Chancellor during the budget – fighting for an end to austerity, investment in public services and protection for the vulnerable.
Watch @KirstySNP demolish the Tories weak case for extra spending on health & education in Northern Ireland but not in the rest of the UK. pic.twitter.com/ddQDtOeJ4O
— Liam Furby (@MrFurby) June 27, 2017