Margaret Ferrier

Margaret Ferrier[1] (born 10 September 1960)[2] is a Scottish National Party politician. First elected as the Member of Parliament for Rutherglen and Hamilton West in the 2015 SNP landslide, she narrowly lost her seat to Ged Killen of the Labour Party at the 2017 snap election but gained it back in the 2019 general election.

Margaret Ferrier
Ferrier in 2020
Member of Parliament
for Rutherglen and Hamilton West
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded byGed Killen
Majority5,230 (9.7%)
In office
7 May 2015 – 3 May 2017
Preceded byTom Greatrex
Succeeded byGed Killen
Personal details
Born (1960-09-10) 10 September 1960
Glasgow, Scotland
Political partyScottish National Party

Life and career

Ferrier was born and raised in the King's Park district of Glasgow, attending Holyrood Secondary School.[3] After living with her family in Mallorca for two years, she moved to Rutherglen from 1972 to 1990 and then resided in Darnley. She has lived in the Halfway district of Cambuslang since 2000, where she joined the Rutherglen branch of the SNP in 2011 (in her youth she had been a Scottish Labour Party member).[3]

Before her election to Parliament, she was a commercial sales supervisor for a manufacturing construction company in Motherwell.[1]

Prior to her successful election to Westminster, she had previously been a defeated candidate for the Rutherglen South ward of South Lanarkshire Council in a 2013 by-election (following the death of Cllr Anne Higgins). The councillor voted in ahead of her on that occasion was Gerard Killen.[4]

She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rutherglen and Hamilton West after winning the seat at the 2015 United Kingdom general election;[5][6] she achieved 30,279 votes, 52% of the total cast and a 31% swing from the previous incumbent and their party. She was the first female MP, and the first for the SNP, to be elected in the Rutherglen/Cambuslang portion of the constituency or its predecessor;[3] Winnie Ewing had previously served a short spell as representative of the original Hamilton constituency for the same party.[7]

She claimed £43,000 in expenses during the 2015/16 financial year, a lower figure than several MPs in the neighbouring Glasgow and South Lanarkshire areas.[8]

In April 2017 Ferrier helped to ensure that the Broadband Internet access to the Newton Farm area of Cambuslang (which had been insufficient due to the large number of new homes built in a previously rural location) was upgraded as a priority matter, after correspondence with the Openreach operator.[9][10]

Ferrier narrowly lost the seat in the June 2017 election to Gerard Killen of the Scottish Labour Party by 265 votes.[11][12] She was again selected as the SNP candidate for the seat in the 2019 Election, where she defeated Killen on a 5% swing and gained a majority of 5,240 votes or 9.7%.[13]

References
  1. Henshaw, William (5 February 2015). "SNP select Margaret Ferrier as candidate for Rutherglen and Hamilton West seat in the General Election". Daily Record / Rutherglen Reformer. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  2. "Margaret Ferrier". myparliament.info. MyParliament. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
  3. Dickie, Douglas (15 June 2015). "Margaret Ferrier opens up to the Reformer on politics, independence and Westminster". Daily Record / Rutherglen Reformer. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
  4. Dickie, Douglas (20 February 2013). "Killen wins Rutherglen South for Labour". Daily Record / Rutherglen Reformer. Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  5. "Election 2015: Rutherglen & Hamilton West". BBC News. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  6. Dickie, Douglas (8 May 2015). "Rutherglen and Hamilton West election results: SNP's Margaret Ferrier takes Labour hotspot with 52 per cent of the vote". Daily Record / Rutherglen Reformer. Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  7. "No M.P. safe except me – Mrs Ewing". The Glasgow Herald. 4 November 1967. p. 1. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
  8. "Rutherglen MP Margaret Ferrier claimed over £43,000 in expenses last year". Daily Record / Rutherglen Reformer. 7 August 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  9. "Superfast web connection for Cambuslang's Newton Farm". Daily Record / Rutherglen Reformer. 21 April 2017. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  10. "Ferrier welcomes Newton Farm broadband breakthrough". Margaret Ferrier website. 2 March 2017. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  11. Kerr, Aiden (9 June 2017). "Labour gain first Scottish seat from SNP in election". STV Group. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  12. Spooner, Murray (9 June 2017). "Labour takes Rutherglen and Hamilton West". Daily Record / Rutherglen Reformer. Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  13. Election 2019: Rutherglen & Hamilton West BBC News, 13 December 2019
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Tom Greatrex		 Member of Parliament
for Rutherglen and Hamilton West
2015–2017		 Succeeded by
Ged Killen
Preceded by
Ged Killen		 Member of Parliament
for Rutherglen and Hamilton West
2019–present		 Incumbent
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