Harriet Cross | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for Gordon and Buchan | |
Assumed office 4 July 2024 | |
Preceded by | Richard Thomson |
Majority | 878 (2.0%) |
Personal details | |
Born | 1990or1991(age 33–34) Harrogate,North Yorkshire,England |
Political party | Scottish Conservatives |
Alma mater | |
Website | www |
Harriet Iona Cross [1] (born 1990 or 1991) [2] is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament for Gordon and Buchan since the 2024 general election. [3]
Harriet Cross was born in Harrogate and lived in West Cork in Ireland where her mother was from before settling in Aberdeenshire. [4] She attended Imperial College London where she studied zoology and earned a master's degree in Rural Land and Business Management and from the University of Reading. [5] In 2018, she returned to Aberdeenshire to work as a rural surveyor and later stood as the Conservative candidate for Aberdeen Donside in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, finishing second to Jackie Dunbar. [2]
In the 2024 UK general election, she narrowly unseated incumbent SNP member Richard Thomson. [6] She became the first female Scottish Conservative MP since Kirstene Hair. [7]
In the 2024 UK Conservative party leadership election she backed Tom Tugendhat. [8]
In September 2024, following the proposal by Bank of Scotland to close its Ellon branch and the closure of all other bank branches in the area, Harriet Cross contacted Bank of Scotland expressing concern about the impact of a lack of banking services and requesting that they send a mobile branch to the area, criticising the proposal as a "disappointing display of attitude". [9]
Grampian was one of nine local government regions of Scotland. It was created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and took its name from the Grampian Mountains. The regional council was based in Aberdeen.
Banff and Buchan is a committee area of the Aberdeenshire Council, Scotland, covering an area along the northern coast of the council area. The main towns are Banff and Fraserburgh. Fishing and agriculture are important industries, together with associated processing and service activity.
Gordon was one of five local government districts in the Grampian region of Scotland. The council was based in Inverurie. It was created in 1975 and abolished in 1996, when the area was included in the Aberdeenshire council area.
Aberdeen South is a burgh constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election.
Banff and Buchan was a constituency of the House of Commons, located in the north-east of Scotland within the Aberdeenshire council area. It elected one Member of Parliament at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post system of voting.
Gordon was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster), which elected one member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The constituency was first contested at the 1983 UK general election; and underwent boundary changes throughout its existence.
EastAberdeenshire was a Scottish county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1868 to 1918 and from 1950 to 1983. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Aberdeenshire Council is the local authority for Aberdeenshire, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. The council has been under no overall control since its creation in 1996. It is based at Woodhill House, which is outside its own territory in the neighbouring Aberdeen City council area.
The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party often known simply as the Scottish Conservatives and colloquially as the Scottish Tories is part of the UK Conservative Party active in Scotland. It currently holds 5 of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons, 31 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and comprises 209 of Scotland's 1,227 local councillors.
Hamish Watt was a Scottish politician, farmer and writer. He was the SNP MP for Banffshire from 1974 to 1979, and was later Rector of the University of Aberdeen and a councillor.
Mintlaw(literally meaning a smooth, flat place) is a large village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It lies at the intersection of the A950 and A952 roads, west of Peterhead. The 2001 UK census records a population of 2,647 people.
Alison McClure McInnes is a Scottish Liberal Democrat politician. She was the Scottish Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Health and Justice in the Scottish Parliament. She was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the North East Scotland region 2007–2016, when she lost her seat at the 2016 Scottish Parliament election. Whilst in Parliament, McInnes was a member of the Justice Committee and a substitute member of Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee of the Scottish Parliament.
Richard Gordon Thomson is a Scottish politician. He is a member of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gordon from 2019 until the seat's abolition in 2024. He was also previously the leader of the SNP group on Aberdeenshire Council. He was the SNP Spokesperson for Business and Trade from 2022, and SNP Spokesperson for Wales and Northern Ireland until 2024.
Aberdeenshire East is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood) covering part of the council area of Aberdeenshire. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It is also one of ten constituencies in the North East Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to the ten constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
The Boddam Branch Line was a 15-mile branch railway line constructed by the Great North of Scotland Railway (GNoSR) from Ellon railway station to Boddam in Aberdeenshire. It opened in 1897. As well as serving the small fishing port of Boddam and nearby stone quarries, it connected to the Cruden Bay Hotel, a luxurious resort hotel established and operated by the GNoSR. As a United Kingdom railway-owned resort hotel, the hotel was an unusual development.
Elections to Aberdeenshire Council were held on 4 May 2017, on the same day as the other Scottish local government elections. The election used the 19 wards created as a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, with each ward electing three or four councillors using the single transferable vote system form of proportional representation, with 70 councillors being elected, an increase of two members compared to 2012.
Andrew Campbell Bowie is a Scottish Conservative politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine since 2017. He previously served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Nuclear and Networks from 2023 to 2024. He has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland since November 2024. He served as Shadow Veterans Minister and Shadow Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero from July to November 2024.
David James Duguid is a Scottish Conservative politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Banff and Buchan from June 2017 to May 2024. Duguid's victory ended thirty years of Scottish National Party control of the seat.
Felicity Christiana Buchan is a British politician and former banker who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kensington in London from 2019 until the seat's abolition in 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing and Homelessness in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities from October 2022 to July 2024. Prior to this, Buchan served as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury from September to October 2022.
Elections to Aberdeenshire Council took place on Thursday 5 May 2022 on 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.