Patricia_Gibson

Patricia Gibson

Patricia Gibson

Scottish SNP politician


Patricia Gibson (born 12 May 1968) is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician serving as SNP Attorney General Spokesperson since September 2023.[1][2] She served as the SNP Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government since 2021 to 2022. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Ayrshire and Arran since the 2015 general election.[3]

Quick Facts MP, SNP Attorney General Spokesperson in the House of Commons ...

Early life and career

Patricia Gibson was born and educated in Glasgow. She received a BA (Hons) and MA (Hons) in English and Politics from the University of Glasgow. After graduation, she taught English for over twenty years.[4][5]

Political career

In 2007, Gibson was elected to the Glasgow City Council as a councillor for the Greater Pollok ward,[6] on which she served until 2012. While on the council, she was the SNP's spokesperson for education on the Glasgow city council.[4]

At the 2010 general election, Gibson stood as the SNP candidate in North Ayrshire and Arran, coming second with 25.9% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour MP Katy Clark.[7]

Parliamentary career

At the 2015 election, Gibson was elected to Parliament as MP for North Ayrshire and Arran with 53.2% of the vote and a majority of 13,573.[8][9][10][11]

Between July 2015 and May 2017 Gibson was a member of the Procedure Committee.[3]

Gibson was re-elected as MP for North Ayrshire & Arran at the snap 2017 general election with a decreased vote share of 38.9% and a decreased majority of 3,633.[12][13]

In June 2017 she was appointed the SNP spokesperson for Consumer Affairs. Between September 2017 and 6 November 2019, Gibson was a member of the Backbench Business Committee.[3]

At the 2019 general election, Gibson was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 48.5% and an increased majority of 8,521.[14][15][16]

Since March 2020, she has been a member of the Backbench Business Committee.[3]

In July 2023, Gibson was re-selected to stand as the SNP's candidate in North Ayrshire and Arran at the next general election.[17]

Sexual misconduct allegations

In March 2021 an SNP member of staff at Westminster complained that Gibson had sexually harassed him in a Parliamentary bar. Gibson said the accusations were "malicious" and "without any foundation".[18] It was reported that Gibson threatened legal action against newspapers that had considered identifying her in coverage over the allegations.[19]

On 16 April 2022, The Times reported that the complaint of sexual harassment against Gibson had been "provisionally upheld" by Parliament's Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS).[20] On 23 June 2022, the report on the complaint was published. The complaint of sexual harassment was initially upheld, but her appeal against the finding, on the grounds that the investigation had made some technical clerical errors, succeeded.[21] It found the complaint was not malicious.[22]

In June 2022, Gibson admitted she was too drunk to recall exactly how she acted around the SNP member of staff who accused her of sexual harassment.[23]

In August 2022, it was revealed that Gibson had claimed in a submission that it was "discriminatory" to claim that the impact of the sexual harassment of a man by a woman was the same as that of a woman by a man.[24]

Personal life

Gibson lives in Kilbirnie, North Ayrshire which is within her parliamentary constituency.[4]

She is married to Kenneth Gibson, a Member of the Scottish Parliament.


References

  1. SNP, the (10 December 2022). "The real opposition: meet your new SNP Westminster Frontbench". Scottish National Party. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
  2. "SNP announces frontbench reshuffle at Westminster". BBC News. 4 September 2023. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
  3. "Parliamentary career for Patricia Gibson - MPs and Lords - UK Parliament". members.parliament.uk. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  4. "Patricia Gibson". Scottish National Party. 4 September 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  5. "About". patriciagibson. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  6. "BBC News | Election 2010 | Constituency | Ayrshire North & Arran". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 12 September 2020.
  7. "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  8. "Forthcoming ElectionsMinimize". North Ayrshire Council. North Ayrshire Council. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  9. "Patricia Gibson: North Ayrshire and Arran MP to stand for re-election". Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald. 19 July 2023. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
  10. Boothman, John (16 April 2022). "Sexual harassment complaints against SNP MPs are upheld". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
  11. Independent Expert Panel (23 July 2022). "The Conduct of Patricia Gibson" (PDF). Parliament.uk.
  12. Hutcheon, Paul (23 June 2022). "SNP staffer 'heartbroken' after MP Patricia Gibson cleared of misconduct charge". Daily Record. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
  13. Hutcheon, Paul (6 August 2022). "SNP MP Patricia Gibson under fire over sexual harassment comments during misconduct investigation". Daily Record. Retrieved 6 August 2022.

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