About
It’s an honour to represent Glenrothes and Mid Fife and champion our communities at Westminster.
From Methil, Buckhaven and the Wemyss villages on the coast, to ancient Markinch and the new town of Glenrothes, and from Kinglassie and Cardenden and the villages of Benarty to Lochgelly and Kelty, the constituency is vast and varied.
While each community has its own proud history and priorities, many look back on a proud industrial heritage – particularly mining. But it is vital we can also look forward to a future which promises innovation, new technology and fresh ideas.
We have to seize this opportunity. Buckhaven and Methil have the highest number of deprived communities in Fife, which is why it was so important the Labour UK Government succeeded in saving Methil Yard.
Not only did this safeguard nearly 200 jobs, securing Navantia’s takeover of Harland and Wolff unlocked the potential to create hundreds more jobs at the site and cement Methil’s ambition to become a thriving hub for the renewables sector in Scotland.
I’m not new to politics, I was previously an MSP in the Scottish Parliament representing North East Scotland from 2003 to 2016. Afterwards I was greatly privileged to work for disability charities in my time away from elected politics.
That included working for the charity Enable in a role supporting people with learning disabilities on campaigns for their rights, not to speak on their behalf but to support them to be their own advocates for change as experts by experience.
The need to tackle inequalities is clear when people with learning disabilities have a life expectancy of 20 years less than the rest of the population, only about 7 per cent are in paid employment, they have fewer opportunities in education and they are twice as likely to experience bullying.
I will never tire of using my position in Parliament to make our country a fairer and a more equal place for disabled people.
I also know how resilient our communities can be, and how we can look to better days even after the toughest of times. When I was growing up in Fife, my mother was a teacher at Beath High, and my father was a vicar in Lochgelly during the miners’ strike.
My father-in-law Jim was a proud member of the National Union of Mineworkers. When I stood for election in 2015, he gave me a miner’s lamp to bring with me to Westminster if I won, to remind me what I was here to do.
I was not elected in 2015, and after that election nearly 10 years ago, many would have thought the flame of the Labour and Trade Union movement was fragile and flickering, but today in this Parliament it burns brighter than ever.
Ten years later, the lamp is with me here in Westminster, and it will remind me why I am here: to deliver the change that our country needs and to show that, through political action, we can deliver the stronger, fairer society that so many people in my constituency gave so much to achieve.
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