George Kerevan (born 28 September 1949) is a Scottish journalist, economist, and politician. He was the Scottish National Party (SNP)

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 o ...

(MP) for East Lothian from 2015, until he lost his seat at the snap 2017 general election.

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 ...

, Kerevan was educated at Kingsridge Secondary School in

Drumchapel Drumchapel ( gd, Druim a' Chapaill), known locally as 'The Drum', is a district in the north-west of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It borders Bearsden (in East Dunbartonshire) to the north-east and Drumry (part of Clydebank, in West Dunbarton ...

and the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

, graduating with a First-class MA degree in

political economy Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour ...

Career

Kerevan held academic posts at

Napier College , mottoeng = Without knowledge, everything is in vain , established = 1992 – granted University status 1964 – Napier Technical College , type = Public , academic_staff = 802 , administrative_staff = 562 , chancellor = Will Whitehorn , ...

, including Senior Lecturer in Economics, from 1975 to 2000, specialising in

energy economics Energy economics is a broad scientific subject area which includes topics related to supply and use of energy in societies. Considering the cost of energy services and associated value gives economic meaning to the efficiency at which energ ...

. He was associate editor of ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pare ...

'' from 2000 to 2009, and was the chief executive of What If Productions (Television) Ltd. He is co-organiser of the Prestwick World Festival of Flight.

Political career

Kerevan was a member of the

International Marxist Group :''See also the International Marxist Group (Germany). The International Marxist Group (IMG) was a Trotskyist group in Britain between 1968 and 1982. It was the British Section of the Fourth International. It had around 1,000 members and suppor ...

, a

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

group, between 1972 and 1983. He later served as a Labour councillor in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

from 1984 to 1996. In 1996, he left Labour to join the Scottish National Party. He went on to stand unsuccessfully as the SNP candidate for

Edinburgh East Edinburgh East is a burgh constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. In present form, the constituency was first used at t ...

at the 2010 UK general election, as well as an SNP candidate in the Lothian region in the

2011 Scottish Parliament election The 2011 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament. The election delivered the first majority government since the opening of Holyrood, a remarkable feat as the Additional M ...

. Kerevan eventually stood successfully as the SNP candidate for East Lothian at the

2015 UK general election The 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 7 May 2015 to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. It was the first and only general election held at the end of a Parliament under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. Local ...

. He won 25,104 votes, a majority of 6,803, and unseated the then-incumbent Labour MP

Fiona O'Donnell Fiona O'Donnell (née Kenny; born 27 January 1960) is a Scottish Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Lothian from 2010 to 2015. She served as the Shadow Minister for the Natural Environment and Fisher ...

. He was a member of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

Treasury Select Committee The House of Commons Treasury Committee (often referred to as the Treasury Select Committee) is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administr ...

. He subsequently lost his seat in the 2017 snap election to

Martin Whitfield Martin David Whitfield (born 12 August 1965) is a Scottish Labour politician and former lawyer and primary school teacher who has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the South Scotland region and the Convener of the Standards a ...

of the Labour Party, who won with a majority of 3,083 votes over Kerevan. In March 2021, Kerevan defected from the SNP to the

Alba Party The Alba Party is a Scottish nationalist and pro-independence political party in Scotland. The party was founded in February 2021, with Alex Salmond (a former first minister of Scotland) announced as party leader shortly thereafter. Salmond lau ...

Selected works

He is the co-author, with Alan Cochrane, of ''Scottish Independence: Yes or No'', published in April 2014. * ''Arguments within Scottish Marxism'', in ''The Bulletin of Scottish Politics'' No. 2, Spring 1981, pp. 111 - 133 * ''The Collapse of the Scottish Economy'', in Dunion, Kevin (ed.), ''Radical Scotland'', February/March 1983, pp. 6 - 8, * * * * *

References

External links

*
Column
at ''The Scotsman'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kerevan, George 1949 births Academics of Edinburgh Napier University Alumni of the University of Glasgow Aviation journalists Councillors in Edinburgh Energy economists International Marxist Group members Living people Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Politicians from Glasgow Scottish columnists Scottish economists Scottish journalists Scottish Labour councillors Scottish National Party MPs UK MPs 2015–2017 Alba Party politicians