Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh
Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh is the Scottish National Party (SNP) MP for Ochil and South Perthshire. She was elected in the general election in May 2015 defeating a long standing Labour Party MP. She gained 46% of the vote share and a majority of 10,168 over Gordon Banks who previously served the constituency from 2005-2015. [1]
The result highlights a surge in popularity for the SNP, with Sheikh being just one of 56 SNP MPs successfully elected in the 2015 general election.
Ahmed-Sheikh was appointed to the position of shadow SNP Westminster Group Leader for Trade and Investment. [2]
Background
She was active in the Scottish Conservative Party from the age of 10 and a member from the age of 16, [3] influenced by her father's role as a councillor who was elected in Scotland in 1986 for the New Town/Stockbridge ward on Lothian Regional Council. However, in 2000 she resigned from the party following William Hague's so-called 'right-wing' pronouncement on asylum seekers, [4] then declaring that she would join the SNP.
Before working in politics, Sheikh was an equity partner and solicitor at Hamilton Burns WS, a solicitors' firm in Glasgow.
Notes
- ↑ Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh becomes Ochil and South Perthshire MP, as long serving Labour man ousted Daily Record, 9 May 2015, accessed 11 May 2015
- ↑ Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh Biography, www.parliament.co.uk, accessed 25 September 2015
- ↑ Electing to put soap on the ropes Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh has abandoned her acting career in Pakistan to fight for a seat in the Scottish Parliament. Frances Horsburgh reports Herald Scotland, 23 February 1999, accessed 11 May 2015
- ↑ Tory defector blames Hague BBC, 15 June 2000, accessed 11 May 2015
