ANNABELLE EWING

Background

Her mother is former Scottish National Party President, Winnie Ewing, who in the past was a member of three different parliaments - Westminster, the Scottish Parliament and the European Parliament.

Education

University of Glasgow (Bachelor of Laws Honors Degree in European Economic Community Law, 1981). The John Hopkins University, Bologna (Diploma in Advanced International Relations, 1982). Europa Institute, Amsterdam (Diploma in European Integration, 1983).

Spoken languages: Dutch, English, French.

Career

She is the Minister for Youth and Women"s Employment in the Scottish Government. Before becoming an Member of Parliament, Annabelle Ewing was an European Community competition lawyer in Brussels and ran a small legal practice. She has been involved in a number of Parliamentary campaigns, including fighting for the rights of Hepatitis C sufferers, and working to gain a public enquiry into the events at Princess Royal Barracks, Deepcut, where James Collinson, a constituent, died on 23 March 2002.

Ewing first stood for Parliament, unsuccessfully, in a by-election for Hamilton South in 1999, where she was beaten by Labour"s Bill Tynan.

She was elected to the United Kingdom Parliament, winning Roseanna Cunningham"s old seat in 2001, defeating the Conservative candidate by just 48 votes, giving her the slimmest majority in Scotland. In the 2005 election, following a radical boundary revision, she contested the new constituency of Ochil and South Perthshire, but lost it to the Labour party candidate, Gordon Banks.

She was later selected to contest the Falkirk East seat in the 2007 election on behalf of the Scottish National Party as a replacement for the previously selected candidate, the late Douglas Henderson. She contested Ochil and South Perthshire for a second time at the 2010 election, failing again to take it from Gordon Banks, this time on an increased (4%) swing away from the Scottish National Party to Labour.

At the 2011 election Ewing was elected to the Scottish Parliament as an additional member for the Mid Scotland and Fife region.

She is famed due to an incident that occurred on 16 December 2004, whereby the Deputy Speaker removed her from the House as she refused to apologise for calling the then Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon a "back-stabbing coward" during exchanges over Geoff Hoon"s plans to merge Scottish Regiments, including the Black Watch. She was promoted to the Scottish Government on 21 November 2014 in Nicola Sturgeon"s first reshuffle. She becomes Minister for Youth and Women"s Employment.

Achievements

• ANNABELLE EWING has been listed as a reputable lawyer by Martindale-Hubbell.

Membership

53rd United Kingdom Parliament]

She is a former Member of Parliament for Perth. She lives in Perthshire, and is a member of what is perhaps Scottish politics" best-known "clan". Ewing is a member of both Shelter and Amnesty International.