Christopher Charles Stephens (born 20 March 1973) 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 has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow South West since the 2015 general election. He has been serving as SNP Spokesperson for Levelling Up since December 2022.

Early life and career

Stephens was born in Glasgow and was educated at Trinity High School, Renfrew and James Watt College in

Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...

, where he studied public administration. He joined the SNP at the age of sixteen. He completed an apprenticeship at Strathclyde Regional Council before working at the council. Stephens then worked for the

Glasgow City Council Glasgow City Council is the local government authority for the City of Glasgow, Scotland. It was created in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, largely with the boundaries of the post-1975 City of Glasgow district of the S ...

. During this time, he joined the trade union UNISON. Initially Stephens was their youth officer in Glasgow and was later promoted in that branch to treasurer and then vice-chair.

Political career

He first stood for the UK Parliament at the 2001 General Election, contesting the Hamilton North and Bellshill constituency. He contested the Glasgow Pollok constituency at the

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

and

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyro ...

elections. In 2011 he came within 623 votes of taking the seat from Johann Lamont. Stephens was 6th on the list of SNP candidates for the six

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

seats in the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...

, although as only the first two SNP candidates were elected, Stephens was not elected. He was elected to the UK Parliament in 2015, winning the contest for the Glasgow South West constituency with a majority of 10,000. Before the election, Stephens was the secretary of the

SNP Trade Union Group The SNP Trade Union Group (TUG) is a constituent structure and the largest affiliated organisation of the Scottish National Party (SNP). Formed in the mid to late 1960s as the Association of Scottish Nationalist Trade Unionists (ASNTU), the or ...

, a member of the party's National Executive Committee, and the convener of the SNP's Glasgow Pollok Constituency Association. In 2017, he retained his seat by a margin of just 60 votes. Stephens is a vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on South Africa and Chair of the Public and Commercial Services Union Parliamentary Group. In October 2016, Stephens was reported to have signed the highest number of Early Day Motions of any Member of Parliament. In March 2018, it was reported that he attempted to make two members of staff in his constituency office redundant, subsequently suspending them from employment, generating criticism from members of his own party.

Personal life

Stephens is married to Aileen Colleran, a former Labour councillor elected to Glasgow City Council until 2017. He employed his wife as a part-time parliamentary assistant from August 2017 to 30 April 2018.

References

External links

*
Profile
on SNP website {{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Chris 1973 births Living people Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Glasgow constituencies Scottish National Party MPs Scottish trade unionists UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present