Angus Struan Carolus Robertson (born 28 September 1969) is a Scottish politician serving as the
Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture since 2021. Former Depute Leader of the
Scottish National Party (SNP) from 2016 to 2018, he has served as the
Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for
Edinburgh Central since
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...
. Robertson previously served as a
Westminster MP for
Moray
Moray () gd, Moireibh or ') is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland.
Between 1975 ...
from
2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...
to
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a se ...
, where he served from 2007 to 2017 as the Leader of the SNP in the
House of Commons.
A graduate of the
University of Aberdeen
, mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
, established =
, type = Public research universityAncient university
, endowment = £58.4 million (2021)
, budget ...
, Robertson previously worked as a
journalist. He was first elected to the
House of Commons in
2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...
. In 2017, he sought re-election as the
MP for
Moray
Moray () gd, Moireibh or ') is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland.
Between 1975 ...
and lost to the
Scottish Conservative candidate,
Douglas Ross.
He was succeeded as SNP Westminster Leader by
Ian Blackford
Ian Blackford (born 14 May 1961) is a Scottish politician who served as Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) in the House of Commons from 2017 to 2022. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ross, Skye and Lochaber since 2015.
O ...
.
Robertson resigned as SNP Depute Leader in February 2018, before launching the pro-independence think tank
Progress Scotland in 2019, alongside Mark Diffley. In the
2021 Scottish Parliament election
The 2021 Scottish Parliament election took place on 6 May 2021, under the provisions of the Scotland Act 1998. All 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament were elected in the sixth election since the parliament was re-established in 1999. The ele ...
, Robertson was elected to the
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of the capital ...
for
Edinburgh Central.
Early life and career
Robertson was born in
Wimbledon, London, to a Scottish father, Struan, who was an engineer, and a German mother, Anna, who was a nurse. Robertson was brought up in
Edinburgh and speaks fluent German. He was educated at
Broughton High School, Edinburgh and the
University of Aberdeen
, mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
, established =
, type = Public research universityAncient university
, endowment = £58.4 million (2021)
, budget ...
, where he graduated in 1991 with an
MA Honours degree in
politics and
international relations. After university he embarked on a
journalistic career, and worked as a foreign and diplomatic correspondent in Central Europe for the
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the British Government through the Foreign Secretary's office. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception a ...
.
Robertson joined the
Scottish National Party in 1984, at the age of 15, after being given a leaflet about the party's youth wing by Charlie Reid of
The Proclaimers
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
. He was the European and International Affairs Adviser to the SNP Group in the
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of the capital ...
.
Political career
House of Commons
Robertson was first elected to the UK
House of Commons in June 2001, representing the
Moray
Moray () gd, Moireibh or ') is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland.
Between 1975 ...
constituency. During his first
parliamentary session, Robertson was Scotland's youngest MP and was rated Scotland's "hardest working MP" according to statistics from the House of Commons. He was a member of the
European Scrutiny Committee
The European Scrutiny Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Following Britain's withdrawal from the European Union in January 2020 and the end of the transition period on 31 December 202 ...
from 2001 to 2010, and served as the SNP's spokesman on
Defence and
International Relations. Robertson was well above average amongst MPs in the number of contributions he made in the House of Commons. In January 2006, Robertson provided Swiss Senator
Dick Marty a report containing what he calls 'a detailed report of numerous
suspect movements of aircraft transiting through Scotland.
Leader of the SNP in the House of Commons
In May 2007, he became SNP Leader in the House of Commons, following
Alex Salmond
Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond (; born 31 December 1954) is a Scottish politician and economist who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure on the Scottish nationalist movement, he has served as leader o ...
's election as
First Minister of Scotland. Following the
2015 general election and the election of Salmond as MP for
Gordon, it was confirmed that he would continue in his role as leader in the Commons. In September 2015, he was appointed to the
Privy Council and as a member of the
Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament
The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) is a statutory joint committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, appointed to oversee the work of the UK intelligence community.
The committee was established in 1994 by the I ...
.
In 2007 Robertson pushed for a UK-wide referendum on the
Lisbon Treaty, something that the SNP opposed because it entrenched EU control over Scottish affairs. "We'll trust the people, while Gordon Brown will not trust the people," Robertson told ''
The Daily Record'', "We are honour-bound to support a referendum."
Ahead of the 2015 General Election, Robertson had the SNP pass a code of conduct that stated any MP must, "accept that no member shall within or outwith the parliament publicly criticise a group decision, policy or another member of the group". Rival parties labelled it a "Stalinist" crackdown on free speech and independent thought.
In 2018 it was revealed that Robertson had been contacted a decade ago by staff at Edinburgh Airport about the alleged behaviour of then First Minister Alex Salmond. Robertson said: "In 2009 I was called by an Edinburgh Airport manager about Alex Salmond's perceived 'inappropriateness' towards female staff at the airport. I was asked if I could informally broach the subject with Mr Salmond to make him aware of this perception. I raised the matter directly with Mr Salmond, who denied he had acted inappropriately in any way. I communicated back to the Edinburgh Airport manager that a conversation had happened. The matter being resolved, and without a formal complaint having been made, it was not reported further." It was subsequently reported that Salmond had been banned from using a VIP access corridor at the airport. Robertson's handling of the allegations were later investigated by the
in 2020 and he submitted written evidence.
In January 2016, Robertson said that British Prime Minister
David Cameron should admit to British involvement in
Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen Saudi may refer to:
* Saudi Arabia
* Saudis, people from Saudi Arabia
* Saudi culture, the culture of Saudi Arabia
* House of Saud
The House of Saud ( ar, آل سُعُود, ʾĀl Suʿūd ) is the ruling royal family of Saudi Arabia. It is ...
: "Isn't it time for the Prime Minister to admit that Britain is effectively taking part in a war in Yemen that is costing thousands of civilians lives and he has not sought parliamentary approval to do this?"
Depute Leader of the SNP
On 13 October 2016, he was elected Depute Leader of the SNP, replacing
Stewart Hosie. Robertson received 52.5% of the votes, defeating
Tommy Sheppard (25.5%),
Alyn Smith (18.6%) and Chris McEleny (3.3%) in the election.
He resigned in February 2018.
During the
2017 general election Robertson told the media that "Tory is a four letter word in Scotland", but amid a backlash to Nicola Sturgeon's decision to call for a second independence referendum, he lost his
Moray
Moray () gd, Moireibh or ') is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland.
Between 1975 ...
seat to
Douglas Ross of the Scottish Conservatives.
[ In a profile of the seat for ''The Guardian'' after the election, journalist Severin Carrell summarised the result: "Moray had been an SNP seat for 30 years but... using Brexit as the basis for a second independence vote so soon after 2014 crystallised an irritation with the party brewing for several years. The Tory cry that Sturgeon needed “to get on with the day job” resonated."
After losing his seat, Robertson resigned as a Depute Leader of the SNP and established ''Progress Scotland'', a pro-independence think-tank.][
]
Scottish Parliament
In February 2020, Robertson announced his intention to contest the Edinburgh Central constituency in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election
The 2021 Scottish Parliament election took place on 6 May 2021, under the provisions of the Scotland Act 1998. All 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament were elected in the sixth election since the parliament was re-established in 1999. The ele ...
. He won selection ahead of Marco Biagi, a former MSP for the area. Robertson won the seat with 39% of the vote, beating out the Scottish Conservative candidate by 4,732 votes.
Constitution Secretary
In May 2021, following the SNP's victory, he was appointed Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture by First Minister
A first minister is any of a variety of leaders of government cabinets. The term literally has the same meaning as "prime minister" but is typically chosen to distinguish the office-holder from a superior prime minister. Currently the title of '' ...
Nicola Sturgeon. Alex Cole-Hamilton of the Scottish Liberal Democrats said his party could not support the role, filled by Robertson. He stated "not one minute" of ministerial or civil service time should given to the "tired, old arguments about currency and about borders". However, his amendment to a Scottish Government motion appointing new ministers was rejected by 70 votes to four, with 51 abstentions.
In 2022 Robertson was charged with overseeing Scotland's decennial census. However, when only 77% of households returned the census - compared with a rate of 97% for the one in England and Wales the previous year - Robertson extended the deadline at a cost of nearly £10 million. Robertson said the war in Ukraine was partly to blame but told the Scottish Parliament there were "potentially serious consequences for not completing a census". Opposition politicians labelled Robertson's handling of the census "nothing short of disastrous" and said the SNP had been foolish not to hold it at the same time as the rest of the country when there was a significant amount of UK-wide publicity about the event.
Controversies
In September 2014, Robertson – and three of his SNP colleagues – were criticised by ''The Scotsman'' and Labour MPs after they missed a vote on an amendment to the bedroom tax
The under-occupancy penalty (also known as the under occupation penalty, under-occupancy charge, under-occupation charge or size criteria) results from a provision of the British Welfare Reform Act 2012 whereby tenants living in public housing (a ...
that would have exempted certain people in certain circumstances - with critics making the point that the SNP had made opposition to the bedroom tax a central part of its campaign for a yes vote in that year's independence referendum. The Labour's Johann Lamont said: "Far from standing up for Scotland, the SNP have stayed at home and let Scotland down." The SNP's Philippa Whitford
Dr Philippa Whitford (born 24 December 1958) is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician and a breast surgeon. She was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Central Ayrshire in May 2015 and was re-elected in 2017 and 2019. She h ...
responded: "This vote demonstrates exactly why we need independence. This was a defeat for the UK government but it doesn’t end the bedroom tax." In December 2014 Robertson did turn up to division on the issue and voted for a Labour motion to scrap it. Although Andrew George's Affordable Homes Bill passed at the vote thanks to Labour and Liberal Democrat votes, it did not progress to become law as the Conservative government did not supply a Money Resolution required for the next stage of the process.
Ahead of the selection contest for the seat of Edinburgh Central, the SNP National Executive Committee announced that any MP chosen as a candidate for Holyrood would be obliged to resign from Westminster ahead of the election to the Scottish Parliament. Some considered the rule change a deliberate "stitch up" by the SNP establishment to stop MP Joanna Cherry, a critic of the party leadership, from winning the party's nomination for the seat and boost the candidacy of Angus Robertson, a leadership loyalist. Cherry dropped out of the contest, citing an unwillingness to make her staff unemployed in a pandemic, and Robertson won the party's nomination.
In September 2020, Robertson wrote that a rise in support for independence in opinion polls could be attributed to, "55,000 predominantly No supporting older voters passing away every year... Since 2014, this has added around 330,000 voters to the electorate, with a likely net gain of over 100,000 for independence.” His remarks were condemned as tasteless by opposition parties and his successor as MP for Moray, Douglas Ross, described them as, "Disgraceful and deeply disappointing comments from Angus Robertson, suggesting that the most vulnerable age group, who have been hardest hit through the tragic loss of so many lives throughout the pandemic, are a boost to his independence obsession. A new low for the SNP.” Robertson said his analysis was "simple statistical facts".
Expenses claims
In 2015, '' The Daily Telegraph'' reported that Robertson's second home expenses had included a television costing £1,119, a £400 home cinema
Home cinema, also called home theaters or theater rooms, are home entertainment audio-visual systems that seek to reproduce a movie theater experience and mood using consumer electronics-grade video and audio equipment that is set up in a roo ...
system, £500 for a bed, £20 for a corkscrew and £2,324 for a sofa bed. The home cinema system was initially denied by the expenses office; however, Robertson appealed this decision and it was subsequently awarded.
In 2017 it was reported in several newspapers that Robertson had sold his second home in London, the mortgage on which was paid on expenses, as part of his divorce settlement. Robertson had previously pledged to repay the value of the expenses on the property and donate any profit to charity. The flat was disposed of in the run up to Mr Robertson’s divorce and he did not profit from the sale of the flat. Its furniture and contents were distributed to Moray based charities.
Personal life
Robertson's wife, Jennifer Dempsie, is a former advisor to Alex Salmond
Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond (; born 31 December 1954) is a Scottish politician and economist who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure on the Scottish nationalist movement, he has served as leader o ...
. She campaigned to inherit Salmond's Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of the capital ...
seat in Aberdeenshire East
Aberdeenshire East ( Gaelic: ''Siorrachd Obar Dheathain an Ear'') is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament ( Holyrood) covering part of the council area of Aberdeenshire. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first ...
but withdrew to focus on her business career.
Outside politics Robertson is a music fan, and particularly likes Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
and Belle and Sebastian
Belle and Sebastian are a Scottish indie pop band formed in Glasgow in 1996. Led by Stuart Murdoch, the band has released eleven albums. They are often compared with acts such as The Smiths and Nick Drake. The name "Belle and Sebastian" comes ...
. He is a supporter of the Heart of Midlothian football team.
On 29 May 2021, he announced the birth of his second child.
Honours
In August 2016, he was awarded the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the Austrian Republic.
Positions held
; Party:
; Parliamentary:
Bibliography
*
*
Notes
References
External links
*
personal website
SNP profile
STV News profile
Guardian profile
They Work For You
The Public Whip
2009 Interview: Angus Robertson – politics.co.uk
*
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, Angus
1969 births
Alumni of the University of Aberdeen
BBC newsreaders and journalists
Living people
Members of the Scottish Cabinet
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
People educated at Broughton High School, Edinburgh
People from Wimbledon, London
Politics of Moray
Scottish journalists
Scottish National Party MPs
Scottish National Party MSPs
Scottish people of German descent
UK MPs 2001–2005
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
Members of the Scottish Parliament 2021–2026
Anglo-Scots
Recipients of the Grand Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria