Tavish Scott

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Tavish Scott
Tavish Scott.jpg
Scott in 2006
Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats
In office
26 August 2008 –7 May 2011

Scott was elected as the first Member of the Scottish Parliament for Shetland in May 1999. [4] He was also the first politician to represent Shetland individually, as Orkney and Shetland have always been represented by a single MP at Westminster. He served as a Deputy Minister for Parliament in the Scottish Executive from 2000 to 2001 in succession to his colleague Iain Smith, but resigned after refusing to support the Executive in a vote on a tie-up scheme for fishing.

In 2003, he returned to the Scottish Executive as Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Services. During his time there his department piloted the Local Governance (Scotland) Act, which changed the elections for local authorities in Scotland to a proportional representation system. Following Nicol Stephen's election as party leader and succession as Deputy First Minister of Scotland in 2005, Scott was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister for Transport. He was re-elected with an increased majority in May 2007, [5] and held the largest margin by percentage, 50.1%, of any MSP over their closest challenger.

After the resignation of his friend and former ministerial colleague Nicol Stephen, Scott declared his candidacy for the leadership of the Scottish Liberal Democrats on 7 July 2008 at Lerwick harbour, surrounded by a group of men dressed as Vikings. [6] On 26 August 2008, he was announced the winner of the leadership contest with 59% (1,450) of the votes. [7]

Following what he described as a "disastrous" set of results for the Scottish Liberal Democrats in the Scottish elections in May 2011, Scott offered his resignation as leader (remaining a Member of the Scottish Parliament). [8] He claimed the poor showings were in part due to the coalition deal which saw the Liberal Democrats form a government with the Conservatives after the 2010 United Kingdom general election.

In the run-up to the 2014 Scottish Independence referendum, Scott was a keen advocate of a "No" vote and also called for recognition of "the Northern Isles' right to determine their own future." [9] At the Liberal Democrat party conference in 2013, he put forward a motion with fellow MSP Liam McArthur to recognise the islands had a "separate right to self-determination". [10] Scott said that his preferred outcome was for Shetland to become a crown dependency of the United Kingdom with its own parliament [10] and was backed by the cross-party Wir Shetland movement, which campaigns for crown dependency status. [11]

Scott announced in June 2019 that he would be resigning from the Scottish Parliament to take a position with the Scottish Rugby Union. [12]

Career timeline

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References

  1. ↑ "Home". Tavish Scott. 10 October 2013. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  2. ↑ Black, Andrew (7 May 2011). "BBC News – Scots Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott quits post". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  3. ↑ "Bio". Tavish Scott MSP. Archived from the original on 9 August 2014. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  4. ↑ "Previous MSPs: Session 1 (1999–2003): Tavish Scott MSP". Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  5. ↑ "Election 2007 | Scottish Parliament | Election Result: Shetland". BBC News. 4 May 2007. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  6. ↑ Shetland News, 7 July 2008 Archived 8 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ "Tavish Scott wins Liberal Democrat leadership race". Edinburgh Evening News . 26 August 2008. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  8. ↑ "Disastrous election performance provokes Scott to stand down as party leader". Shetland Times. 7 May 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  9. ↑ "SNP admits Shetland and Orkney could opt out of independent Scotland". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  10. 1 2 "Scottish independence: Northern Isles devolution bid". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
  11. ↑ "Councillor quits Wir Shetland in wake of Tavish endorsement". 6 April 2016.
  12. ↑ "Former Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott to quit Holyrood". BBC News. 26 June 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
Scottish Parliament
New constituency Member of the Scottish Parliament
for Shetland
1999–2019 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Deputy Minister for Parliamentary Business
2000–2001		Succeeded by
Preceded by Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform
2003–2005		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister for Transport and Telecommunications
2005–2007		Succeeded by
Stewart Stevenson
as Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats
2008–2011 		Succeeded by
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