Sheila Gilmore | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for Edinburgh East | |
In office 6 May 2010 –30 March 2015 | |
Preceded by | Gavin Strang |
Succeeded by | Tommy Sheppard |
Personal details | |
Born | [1] Aberdeen,Aberdeenshire,Scotland | 1 October 1949
Political party | Labour |
Alma mater | University of Kent University of Edinburgh |
Sheila Gilmore (born 1 October 1949) is a British Labour Party politician,who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh East from 2010 to 2015. [2] Gilmore stood for the seat following the decision of Gavin Strang to stand down;she is a former councillor at the City of Edinburgh Council.
Gilmore was born in Aberdeen in 1949. She moved to Edinburgh in 1956. She studied History and Politics at the University of Kent at Canterbury. After graduating she undertook a post-graduate teaching qualification at the University of Edinburgh. She then taught for two years in Glasgow and Dunfermline.
Gilmore then returned to the University of Edinburgh to study law. Upon graduating she worked for the Scottish Consumer Council as a Legal Advisory Officer. She then went on to work for a private law practice in Edinburgh focusing on family law. She represented clients receiving legal aid in cases involving divorce,domestic abuse,child protection and adoption.
Gilmore was a member of the Labour Party as a teenager but joined the International Marxist Group during the 1970s. She left in 1976 to join the Scottish Labour Party (SLP),a breakaway from the official Labour Party led by Jim Sillars. Later she rejoined the official party and was elected in an Edinburgh District Council by-election for Moredun ward in 1991. She was appointed Convenor for Housing in 1999. She retained this position until she stood down from the council in 2007. Gilmore's proposal to transfer all the council's housing to a new housing association was defeated in a referendum.
Gilmore stood for the Scottish Parliament constituency of Edinburgh Pentlands in the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections,but came second to the Conservative Party candidate David McLetchie. [3]
In April 2009,Sheila Gilmore was selected as Labour's candidate for the Westminster constituency of Edinburgh East [4] from an all-woman shortlist. [5] Gilmore beat lawyer Catriona Munro,City of Edinburgh councillors Norma Hart and Angela Blacklock,and local party activist Karen Doran.
The selection process was triggered by the announcement by the incumbent MP,Gavin Strang,that he would not be seeking re-election at the forthcoming general election. [6]
The 2010 UK general election was held on 6 May 2010,and Gilmore was one of six candidates for the constituency of Edinburgh East. She received 17,314 votes,which was a 43% share of the vote and a majority of 9,181. [2] She lost the seat to Tommy Sheppard of the SNP at the 2015 general election. [7]
Gilmore is married to Brian Gilmore. They live in Edinburgh and have four grown up children.
The Scottish Labour Party (SLP) was a socialist party in Scotland that was active between 1976 and 1981. It formed as a breakaway from the UK Labour Party. It won three council seats in 1977 but lost its MPs at the 1979 election and was dissolved two years later.
Gavin Steel Strang is a Scottish Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh East from 1970 until 2010. He served as a minister in the 1974–79 Labour government under Prime Ministers Harold Wilson and James Callaghan,as well as in the Cabinet under Tony Blair. By the time of his retirement at the 2010 general election,he was the longest-serving Scottish MP.
Rosemary McKenna is a Scottish Labour Party politician,who sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2010. She was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth at the 1997 general election,and held that seat until its abolition in boundary changes for the 2005 general election. She was then elected as the MP for the new Cumbernauld,Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East,from which she stood down at the next election,in 2010.
Richard Giles Douglas was a Scottish politician who was a Member of Parliament (MP) elected as a Labour Co-operative candidate,but who subsequently joined the Scottish National Party (SNP).
Sarah Herriot Boyack is a Scottish Labour politician who has served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Lothian region since 2019,and previously from 2011 to 2016. She formerly represented the Edinburgh Central constituency from 1999 to 2011.
Scottish Labour,officially the Scottish Labour Party,is the part of the UK Labour Party active in Scotland. Ideologically social democratic and unionist,it holds 22 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 2 of 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons. It is represented by 262 of the 1,227 local councillors across Scotland. The Scottish Labour party has no separate Chief Whip at Westminster.
A by-election in the Moray constituency of the Scottish Parliament was held on 27 April 2006 following the death of the Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) Margaret Ewing on 21 March 2006,from breast cancer. The seat was successfully defended by the SNP's Richard Lochhead,increasing the majority over the Scottish Conservative Party by 1073 votes.
The Monklands East by-election was held on 30 June 1994,following the death of the Leader of the Labour Party John Smith,Member of Parliament (MP) for Monklands East in Scotland,on 12 May.
The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999. Local elections in Scotland fell on the same day.
The Scottish Protestant League (SPL) was a far-right political party in Scotland during the 1920s and 1930s. The League was led by Alexander Ratcliffe,who founded it in 1920.
The 2008 Glasgow East by-election was a by-election for the UK Parliamentary constituency of Glasgow East which was held on 24 July 2008. The election was triggered when,on 30 June 2008,the sitting MP David Marshall stood down due to ill health.
Michael Bruce Crockart is a Scottish Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh West from 2010 to 2015.
George Kerevan is a Scottish journalist,economist,and politician. He was the Scottish National PartyMember of Parliament (MP) for East Lothian from 2015,until he lost his seat to Martin Whitfield of the Labour Party at the 2017 general election.
Ross Thomson is a former Scottish Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aberdeen South from 2017 to 2019. Thomson was the first Conservative MP elected for Aberdeen South since the 1992 general election,25 years earlier. He was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the North East Scotland region from May 2016 until June 2017. He was elected to Aberdeen City Council in the 2012 local elections.
Ian Murray is a British Labour Party politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh South since 2010. He has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland since 2020,and previously from 2015 to 2016.
Graeme Morrice is a Scottish Labour politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Livingston from 2010 to 2015. Prior to his election to Parliament,he served as the Leader of West Lothian Council from 1995 to 2007.
The 1929 North Lanarkshire by-election was a parliamentary by-election held in the United Kingdom on 21 March 1929 for the House of Commons constituency of North Lanarkshire in Scotland.
Tommy Sheppard is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh East since 2015. He has been SNP Spokesperson for Scotland since 2023. He is a former SNP spokesperson for the Cabinet Office and a former SNP Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. He is also known for founding The Stand Comedy Clubs in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Lesley Brennan is a Scottish politician who served as chief of staff to Richard Leonard,during his tenure as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party,from 2017 to 2021. She was formerly a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the North East Scotland region for 70 days in early 2016 and a councillor in Dundee from 2012 to 2016. She has also worked as an economist and as a parliamentary assistant.
Leith Walk is one of the seventeen wards used to elect members of the City of Edinburgh Council. Established in 2007 along with the other wards,it currently elects four councillors. Its territory spans the area between Edinburgh city centre and the port of Leith to its north-east,centred around Leith Walk,the primary thoroughfare between them.