David George Thompson (born 20 September 1949) is a former

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 who was the leader of Action for Independence (AFI) from 2020 to 2021. Thompson was an SNP

Member of the Scottish Parliament Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; gd, Ball Pàrlamaid na h-Alba, BPA; sco, Memmer o the Scots Pairliament, MSP) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. Electoral system The ad ...

(MSP) from 2007 to 2016. In the

2007 Scottish Parliament election The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999. Local elections in Scotland fe ...

he became an MSP for the Highlands and Islands region, and then in the

2011 Scottish Parliament election The 2011 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 to Members of the 4th Scottish Parliament, elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament. The election delivered the first majority government since the opening of Holyrood, ...

for the

Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament ( Holyrood) covering part of the Highland council area. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. It is also o ...

constituency.

Early life

Thompson was born in Lossiemouth, Scotland. Prior to entering politics, he had a long career in local government, ending as Director of Protective Services for The Highland Council.

Political career

In 2007, Thompson was elected from the regional list as a MSP for the Highlands and Islands. Thompson received some media attention in the aftermath of the 2007 election because he pointed out to the returning officer that the number of additional members for each party had been wrongly calculated. The initial calculation would have given Labour four additional seats and the SNP none, which would have resulted in Labour gaining a

plurality Plurality may refer to: Voting * Plurality (voting), or relative majority, when a given candidate receives more votes than any other but still fewer than half of the total ** Plurality voting, system in which each voter votes for one candidate and ...

and winning the election. After Thompson challenged this calculation and the figures were correctly calculated, Labour were allocated three seats and the SNP two. This resulted in the SNP gaining a plurality of one seat and enabled them to form the Scottish Government. In 2011, Thompson was elected for the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch constituency. In February 2014, he was one of seven SNP MSPs that voted against allowing same-sex marriage in Scotland. In July 2020, Thompson quit the SNP to set up the Alliance for Independence, a new pro-Scottish independence party to contest 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 ...

, predicting the party could win up to 24 seats, and arguing that voting SNP with both constituency and list votes would "achieve nothing." He told '' The National'' he believed the new movement could help create a "supermajority" in Holyrood at the expense of the Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems. In October, the party changed its name to Action for Independence (AFI) in February 2021 after the ''Alliance for Independence'' was originally rejected by the Electoral Commission. On 26 March 2021, Thompson stated that AFI would be standing down all of their candidates in order to support the Alba Party in the 2021 election.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, David 1949 births Living people Scottish National Party MSPs Members of the Scottish Parliament 2007–2011 Members of the Scottish Parliament 2011–2016 People from Lossiemouth