Owen Thompson

Owen Thompson is the Scottish National Party whip and has been the SNP MP for Midlothian from 2015-17, regaining the seat in 2019. Having studied accounting and finance at Edinburgh Napier University, Thompson served on Midlothian Council and was Scotland’s youngest councillor at the age of 27 – he became leader of the council in 2013, succeeding party colleague Bob Constable. He was elected as MP in 2015 with 24,453 votes and a 50.6 per cent share of votes cast. He narrowly lost his seat at the 2017 election, losing by 885 votes to Danielle Rowley of the Labour party; he re-gained it in 2019 with a majority of 5,705. Thompson has been particularly active in speaking out about gender-based violence (especially during the 2020 lockdowns) and about the impact of climate change on the Scottish peatlands, particularly in light of moor burning practices. He currently sits on a number of committees including the Committee of Selection, the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, the Statutory Instruments Joint and Select Committees, the European Statutory Instruments Committee, the Procedure Committee and the Consolidation and Bills Joint Committee.