Anne McLaughlin

Anne McLaughlin returned to parliament in the 2019 general election with a majority of 2,548, having lost her Glasgow North East seat two years earlier. McLaughlin has spent most of her life living in the city and was educated at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Glasgow University. An active member of the Scottish National Party, McLaughlin ran for parliament in 2001, contesting Glasgow Rutherglen at that year’s general election, coming a distant second. She later stood unsuccessfully in the 2003 Scottish parliament election, but joined the body in 2009 as the next person on the SNP’s party list, following the death of Bashir Ahmad. She stood in the 2011 Scottish parliament elections but was unsuccessful. Four years later, she was elected as the MP for Glasgow North East in a landslide election for the SNP. She took the seat from Labour on a staggering 39.1 per cent swing – the largest swing in that year’s election. In the House of Commons she was the SNP’s spokesperson on civil liberties. Labour retook Glasgow North East from McLaughlin at the 2017 general election, but just two years later, she won it back. In January 2020 she was named as the SNP spokesperson for women and equalities.