Brendan O'Hara (born 27 April 1963) is a
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...
(SNP) politician. He was elected
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) for the constituency of
Argyll and Bute
Argyll and Bute ( sco, Argyll an Buit; gd, Earra-Ghàidheal agus Bòd, ) is one of 32 unitary authority council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 2020) ...
in
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
. He has been the SNP Spokesperson for International Development since December 2022. He served as the SNP Digital, Culture, Media and Sport spokesperson from 2017 to 2018 and as the SNP Defence spokesperson from 2015 to 2017.
Early life and education
Born in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, O'Hara was educated at St. Andrew's Secondary,
Carntyne
Carntyne ( gd, Càrn an Teine) is a suburban district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated north of the River Clyde, and in the east end of the city. Since 2007 it has formed the core of the East Centre ward under Glasgow City Coun ...
, and attended
Strathclyde University
The University of Strathclyde ( gd, Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh) is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal chart ...
from where he graduated with a 2:1 in Economic History and Modern History.
Director and producer
He has had a successful career as a TV producer. He wrote, produced and directed the ''Road To Referendum'' documentary series which was broadcast on
STV in 2013 and was subsequently nominated for a
BAFTA Scotland award in the
Current Affairs category. He has worked for
STV,
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
and the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. His credits include ''Comedy Connections'' and ''Movie Connections'' (BBC1), ''The Football Years'' (STV) and ''Scotland's Greatest Album'' (STV). O'Hara also worked on
.
O'Hara was an unsuccessful SNP candidate on two occasions. He contested
receiving 3,554 votes (a 10.2% share). He also stood in
and gained 6,322 votes (a 20.8% share).
In 2015, he received 22,959 votes (44.3% share) in Argyll & Bute, and unseated the sitting
MP Alan Reid by 8,473 votes. On 20 May 2015, he was appointed the party's spokesman for defence. He was the first of the 2015 intake to make his
he successfully retained his seat; however, with a reduced majority of 1,328 votes to the Conservative party. At the 2019 general election he retained his seat with a majority of 4,110.