Richard Thomson

Richard Thomson first ran to be an MP in 2001, in Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale. During this election, the BBC ran a website with skeletal profiles on all the candidates. There is a picture of twenty-five-year-old Thomson above his CV. He had graduated only three years prior to running, was single, and had so far had worked as a Clerk and an Administrator at the Bank of Scotland, followed by Scottish Widows. His policy interests are listed as: Constitution, Transport, International Relations, Economic Policy. Fast-forward nineteen years, to today, and Thomson has been a member of parliament for seven months. He is now married with two daughters and has had many more jobs, including head of research for the Westminster SNP. One of his main interests is still Constitution. He is in favour of a more proportional system to elect MPs and is a long-term supporter and campaigner for Scottish Independence. Thomson tells Mace that his proudest political achievement is working with the SNP from the mid-nineties with “thousands of others” to bring the party to where it is today (dominating Scottish seats in both Westminster and Holyrood parliaments). Writing for the Scots Independent in August, Thomson urged Scottish Independence supporters to “keep the heid” when it came to fights over the timing and implementation of IndyRef2. Thomson remains interested in international relations and economic policy too; one of his favourite podcasts is ‘Cold War Conversations’. He has consistently voted for more EU integration and told Mace that George Reid was the person who had had the greatest political influence on him, citing Reid’s “commitment to Europeanism, internationalism, social justice, building civil society around the world” as inspiration for his own politics. Thomson is the SNP’s spokesperson for business and industry and sits on two separate pension scheme APPGs.