As the newly elected parliament is opened, we will be profiling some of the new LGBTQ+ MPs who have been elected to the House of Commons.
Their inclusion on our site does not indicate that they campaigned on LGBTQ+ issues, although we will report as such if they have, but that they are openly ‘out’ and as such have the opportunity to represent our broadening communities in parliament.
Alyn Smith is an openly gay Scottish Nationalist MP, newly elected to represent for Stirling at the 2019 general election. He is no stranger to the political landscape having served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Scotland from 2004 to 2019. When elected in 2004 he was the youngest ever Scottish politician to be elected to the European parliament. He is a qualified lawyer specialising in commercial law
Although not expressly campaigning on LGBTQ+ issues, he is openly gay and sits on the SNP National Executive Committee. Smith is a committed supporter of both the EU and an independent Scotland within the EU, and has been openly critical of both the Brexit Party and the result of the 2016 referendum in which 52% of the UK electorate voted to leave the EU, but in Scotland more than 60% elected to remain.
In March 2019, in a speech to the European parliament, Smith stated that Brexit will cause the people of Scotland to be removed from the EU against their democratically expressed will, and that Scottish independence from the UK could provide a means for Scotland to rejoin the EU. He channelled Belinda Carlisle (maybe) in his closing line: “I’m asking you to leave a light on so we can find our way home.”
His recent win over the incumbent conservative candidate returned a majority of 9,254 and his victory automatically ends his tenure as an MEP, as an individual cannot simultaneously be a member of a member state’s domestic parliament and that of the EU.
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