Angus MacDonald | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire | |
Assumed office 4 July 2024 | |
Preceded by | Constituency created |
Majority | 2,160 (4.5%) |
Member of Highland Council for Fort William and Ardnamurchan | |
In office May 2022 –September 2024 | |
Succeeded by | Andrew Baxter |
Personal details | |
Born | Angus Francis MacDonald 7 November 1962 London,UK |
Political party | Liberal Democrats |
Children | 4 |
Education | Ampleforth College Edinburgh Academy |
Alma mater | Royal Military Academy Sandhurst |
Angus Francis MacDonald [1] is a British Liberal Democrat politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Inverness,Skye and West Ross-shire since 2024.
Angus Francis MacDonald was born on the 7th of November,1962 in London. Son of Donald ‘Rory’MacDonald,descendant of distiller 'Long John' MacDonald,and Nancy MacDonald (nee Hill,of Philadelphia). The second of five children,he was brought up in the Clachaig Inn,Glencoe.
He was privately educated at two schools;Ampleforth College and Edinburgh Academy. [2]
After school,MacDonald attend RMA Sandhurst before joining the Queen's Own Highlanders as a Second Lieutenant. He served in Falklands immediately after the ceasefire,from July –December 1982,where the regiment led the operation to restore normality on the islands,and in Northern Ireland the following year. [3]
MacDonald left the army in 1983 and after a few years at stockbrokers Laing &Cruickshank,ran a number of publishing businesses in the financial services sector,including Edinburgh Financial Publishing,Financial News and eFinancialCareers,the latter two of which he and his co-investors sold in 2007 to a consortium including Dow Jones for £79 million. [4] MacDonald later expanded his business interests to encompass renewable energy,online education and waste management. [5] [6] [7]
MacDonald was elected as a councillor to Highland Council,representing Fort William and Ardnamurchan in the 2022 Highland Council election,with 37.5% of the vote. [8] [9]
He had previously been a Conservative Party donor,giving £40,000 to the party when the Scottish Conservatives were under the leadership of Ruth Davidson. [10] [11] [12]
MacDonald's seat,Inverness,Skye and West Ross-shire,was the final constituency to declare its results in the 2024 general election due to a discrepancy. The result was declared on 6 July. [13] [14] [15] [10] [16] [17]
MacDonald describes himself as centre-left on social issues and centre-right on economic issues. [18]
MacDonald has been a patron of the National Trust for Scotland since 2009,serving on the strategic review panel in 2010 under Lord George Reid,before serving as Vice-President for almost a decade.
It was while running Edinburgh Financial Publishing in Hong Kong in the early 1990s that MacDonald took part in a 100km race along the famous MacLehose Trail. Taking this idea he founded the Caledonian Challenge in 1997 with a friend,Alex Blyth,to raise money for Foundation Scotland. More than 17,000 people took part in the 52 mile race down the Scottish West Highland Way and together raised over £13 million for Scottish communities. [19] MacDonald competed in the event eight times himself,though never managed to beat the time of his wife,athlete Michie MacDonald.
In addition to his charitable and business pursuits,MacDonald been involved with various social enterprises and non-profit endeavours to foster Highland traditions,culture and entrepreneurialism in Lochaber,most notably the Highland Cinema,an independent cinema in Fort William which was voted "Cinema of the year under 24 screens" in 2023, [20] [21] and Dragon's Glen,an annual competition inspired by the Dragons Den TV show that awarded £10,000 grants to aspiring local businesses. [22] [23] [24]
In 2014,MacDonald was awarded an OBE for services to the Highlands. [25]
MacDonald is a practising Christian. He is married to his wife Michie MacDonald,from Ireland,and both live in Fort William which is within his constituency. Together they have four adult sons. [26]
Fort William is a town in Lochaber in the Scottish Highlands,located on the eastern shore of Loch Linnhe. At the 2011 census,Fort William had a population of 15,757,making it the second-largest settlement both in the Highland council area and in the whole of the Scottish Highlands;only the city of Inverness has a larger population.
Highland is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in the United Kingdom. It was the 7th most populous council area in Scotland at the 2011 census. It has land borders with the council areas of Aberdeenshire,Argyll and Bute,Moray and Perth and Kinross. The wider upland area of the Scottish Highlands after which the council area is named extends beyond the Highland council area into all the neighbouring council areas plus Angus and Stirling.
Inverness is a city in the Scottish Highlands,having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands.
Cromarty is a town,civil parish and former royal burgh in Ross and Cromarty,in the Highland area of Scotland. Situated at the tip of the Black Isle on the southern shore of the mouth of Cromarty Firth,it is 5 miles (8 km) seaward from Invergordon on the opposite coast. In the 2001 census,it had a population of 719.
Lochaber is a name applied to a part of the Scottish Highlands. Historically,it was a provincial lordship consisting of the parishes of Kilmallie and Kilmonivaig. Lochaber once extended from the Northern shore of Loch Leven,a district called Nether Lochaber,to beyond Spean Bridge and Roybridge,which area is known as Brae Lochaber or Braigh Loch Abar in Gaelic. For local government purposes,the name was used for one of the landward districts of Inverness-shire from 1930 to 1975,and then for one of the districts of the Highland region from 1975 to 1996. Since 1996 the Highland Council has had a Lochaber area committee.
Caithness,Sutherland and Easter Ross is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster). It is the most northerly constituency on the British mainland. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election.
Inverness,Nairn,Badenoch and Strathspey was a constituency of the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. As with all seats since 1950 it elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Ross,Skye and Lochaber was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster). It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
The Highlands and Islands is an area of Scotland broadly covering the Scottish Highlands,plus Orkney,Shetland,and the Outer Hebrides.
Ross,Skye and Inverness West was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2005. The constituency elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election.
Inverness East,Nairn and Lochaber was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It was one of eight constituencies in the Highlands and Islands electoral region,which elects seven additional members,in addition to constituency MSPs,to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Inverness,Nairn and Lochaber was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1983 to 1997. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election.
The politics of the Highland council area in Scotland are evident in the deliberations and decisions of the Highland Council,in elections to the council,and in elections to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster) and the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). In the European Parliament the area was within the Scotland constituency,which covers all of the 32 council areas of Scotland.
Inverness-shire or the County of Inverness,is a historic county in Scotland. It is named after Inverness,its largest settlement,which was also the county town. Covering much of the Highlands and some of the Hebrides,it is Scotland's largest county by land area. It is generally rural and sparsely populated,containing only three towns which held burgh status,being Inverness,Fort William and Kingussie. The county is crossed by the Great Glen,which contains Loch Ness and separates the Grampian Mountains to the south-east from the Northwest Highlands. The county also includes Ben Nevis,the highest mountain in both Scotland and the United Kingdom.
Caithness,Sutherland and Ross is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament covering the northern part of the Highland council area. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It is also one of eight constituencies in the Highlands and Islands electoral region,which elects seven additional members,in addition to eight constituency MSPs,to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Inverness and Nairn is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the Highland council area. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It is also one of eight constituencies in the Highlands and Islands electoral region,which elects seven additional members,to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Skye,Lochaber and Badenoch is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the Highland council area. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It is also one of eight constituencies in the Highlands and Islands electoral region,which elects seven additional members,as well as eight constituency MSPs,to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Andrew Egan Henderson Hendry,known as Drew Hendry,is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Inverness,Nairn,Badenoch and Strathspey from 2015 until 2024,when the seat was abolished. Hendry served as the SNP's Economy Spokesperson in the House of Commons from September 2023 to May 2024.
Elections to The Highland Council were held on 5 May 2022,the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections. As with other Scottish council elections,it was held using single transferable vote (STV) –a form of proportional representation –in which multiple candidates are elected in each ward and voters rank candidates in order of preference.
Inverness,Skye and West Ross-shire is a constituency of the House of Commons in the UK Parliament. Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies,it was first contested at the 2024 general election,and was the final constituency to announce its result,due to multiple recounts related to technical issues in its vote-counting.