Karen Whitefield | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the Scottish Parliament for Airdrie and Shotts | |
| In office 6 May 1999 –22 March 2011 | |
| Preceded by | new constituency |
| Succeeded by | Alex Neil |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 8 January 1970 Bellshill,Scotland |
| Political party | Scottish Labour |
Karen Whitefield (born 8 January 1970,Bellshill) is a Scottish Labour politician. She was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Airdrie and Shotts constituency from 1999 to 2011.
Prior to her election as MSP,she worked as a personal assistant to Rachel Squire MP.
She was elected as MSP for Airdrie and Shotts at the 1999 Scottish Parliament general election. As an MSP,she chaired the Parliament's Education Committee,where she used her casting vote to reject the student graduate endowment bill,a Scottish National Party (SNP) flagship policy. It had the backing of the Liberal Democrats and SNP members,but not the Labour or Conservative members of the committee. [1] The bill was eventually passed through the Scottish Parliament by a vote of 67 to 61. Whitefield was Scottish Labour's shadow Minister for Children in the Scottish Parliament,and Convener of the Cross-Party Group on Diabetes under Iain Gray. At the 2011 Scottish Parliament election,she lost her seat to the SNP's Alex Neil,one of nine Labour MSPs to lose their constituency seats after holding them since the first elections to the Scottish Parliament in 1999. [2]
Following the resignation of sitting MP Eric Joyce (and the controversial and flawed 2013 Labour Party Falkirk candidate selection),in a re-run in which all the previous candidates were excluded on 8 December 2013,Whitefield was selected to contest the Falkirk constituency at the 2015 UK general election. [3] In the event,the SNP landslide swept Scotland,including Falkirk,and Whitehead was unsuccessful in being elected.
Following the resignation of Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard,Whitefield chaired Anas Sarwar's leadership campaign. Sarwar was subsequently voted in as leader of Scottish Labour. [4]
After her unseating in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election,she subsequently became a campaign officer at USDAW. She is single and lives in the village of Glenmavis - a satellite village of Airdrie.[ citation needed ]
Alexander Neil is a Scottish politician who served as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing from 2012 to 2014 and Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice,Communities and Pensioners' Rights from 2014 to 2016. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP),he was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Airdrie and Shotts constituency from 2011 until his retirement in 2021.
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The 2014 Scottish Labour Party leadership election was an internal party election to choose a new leader and deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party,following the resignations of Johann Lamont as leader and Anas Sarwar as deputy. Lamont announced her decision in an interview with the Daily Record on 24 October,saying that she was stepping down effective immediately because the UK Labour Party treated the Scottish party as a "branch office of London". Lamont,who had won the 2011 leadership contest,thus becoming the first Scottish leader to have authority over Labour's Scottish MPs in the House of Commons as well as in the Scottish Parliament,was the second leader of a Scottish political party to resign in the wake of the 2014 independence referendum. Before her resignation,Alex Salmond announced his intention to relinquish the role of Scottish National Party (SNP) leader and First Minister. Sarwar announced his own resignation on 30 October,saying he felt it was right for the party to elect a new leadership team.
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Martin David Whitfield is a Scottish Labour politician and former lawyer and primary school teacher who has served as the MP for East Lothian (2017-19) and as Convener of the Standards and Procedures and Public Appointments Committee since 2021. He has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament for the South Scotland region since the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.
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