Kirsten Frances Oswald (born 21 December 1972) is a
Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who served as the SNP Deputy
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...
Leader from 2020 to 2022. First elected as the
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 Renfrewshire
East Renfrewshire ( sco, Aest Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù an Ear) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. Until 1975, it formed part of the county of Renfrewshire for local government purposes along with the modern council areas ...
in
2015, she was unseated at the
2017 snap election but subsequently re-elected at the
2019 election.
In July 2020, Oswald became the SNP's deputy leader at Westminster, before announcing in December 2022 that she would be standing down from the position. She has been SNP Spokesperson for Women and Equalities since February 2021.
Early life and education
Oswald was born in
Dundee to Helen and Ed Oswald.
Her mother Helen, was Provost of
Angus Council
Angus ( sco, Angus; gd, Aonghas) is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross. Main industries include ag ...
.
She grew up in
Carnoustie
Carnoustie (; sco, Carnoustie, gd, Càrn Ùstaidh) is a town and former police burgh in the council area of Angus, Scotland. It is at the mouth of the Barry Burn on the North Sea coast. In the 2011 census, Carnoustie had a population of 1 ...
where she attended
Carnoustie High School.
She studied history at 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 an MA(Hons) in 2005.
Political career
Oswald became active in the
Scottish National Party during the 2014
Scottish independence referendum
A referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom was held in Scotland on 18 September 2014. The referendum question was, "Should Scotland be an independent country?", which voters answered with "Yes" or "No". The "No" side wo ...
, serving on the committee of her local
Women for Independence
Women for Independence is a grass-roots political organisation which seeks to improve the representation of women in public and political life throughout Scotland. Founded in 2012, the movement promotes the causes of Scottish independence and othe ...
group where she was responsible for local
food bank
A food bank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distribute food direct ...
collections.
On 30 January 2015, it was announced that Oswald was selected as the SNP candidate for the
East Renfrewshire
East Renfrewshire ( sco, Aest Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù an Ear) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. Until 1975, it formed part of the county of Renfrewshire for local government purposes along with the modern council areas ...
constituency at the
2015 general election. During her campaign, she was criticised for sending letters to Conservative voters asking for their support to beat Labour. Oswald stated that her letters served to contrast voter values with negative campaign tactics from the Conservatives that focused on keeping the SNP out of power.
She won the seat with a majority of 3,718 votes, unseating the-then
Leader of the Scottish Labour Party
The office of Leader of the Scottish Labour Party was established when the Scottish Parliament was formed in 1999 and prior to its inaugural election. Until the Murphy and Boyack review in 2011, the office was Leader of the Labour Party in the ...
,
Jim Murphy
James Francis Murphy (born 23 August 1967) is a Scottish former politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2014 to 2015 and Secretary of State for Scotland from 2008 to 2010. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for East Re ...
. Murphy had held the seat since
Labour's victory 18 years earlier, and resigned from the Scottish Labour leadership on 13 June 2015.
At the
2017 general election, Oswald lost her seat to
Paul Masterton
Paul Masterton (born 2 November 1985) is a Scottish Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Renfrewshire from 2017 to 2019.
Early life
Masterton was born on 2 November 1985 in Edinburgh. He attended Bucksto ...
of the
Conservatives
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
, who won with a majority of 4,712 votes.
In 2018 she was elected Chairman and Business Convener of the SNP, replacing then
Scottish Government Finance Secretary
Derek Mackay.
She was selected by the SNP to contest for the East Renfrewshire seat in the
2019 general election, where she was re-elected with a majority of 5,426 votes or 9.8% - larger than her previous majority in 2015.
On 7 July 2020, she was elected deputy leader of the SNP in 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 ...
, succeeding
Kirsty Blackman
Kirsty Ann Blackman (; born 20 March 1986) is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Aberdeen North since 2015.
Blackman was re-elected in 2017 and 2019 and currently serves as the SNP Spokes ...
.
In May 2021, Oswald claimed that she fundamentally disagreed with her colleague
Douglas Chapman on the assessment of support and financial information available to him in his role as party Treasurer. Chapman had stood down from this role in the wake of a probe regarding £600,000 'missing' independence campaign funds being investigated by
Police Scotland
Police Scotland ( gd, Poileas Alba), officially the Police Service of Scotland (), is the national police force of Scotland. It was formed in 2013, through the merging of eight regional police forces in Scotland, as well as the specialist service ...
.
Oswald has spoken out about China's reported repression repeatedly in the House of Commons. In September 2021,
Uyghur leaders honoured her for her continued work on their cause and the
World Uyghur Congress
The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is an international organization of exiled Uyghur groups that claims to "represent the collective interest of the Uyghur people" both inside and outside of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's ...
publicly thanked her for her support.
In June 2022, Oswald's colleague,
Patrick Grady
Patrick John Grady (born 5 February 1980) is a Scottish politician.
He was elected at the 2015 UK general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow North. He was re-elected for the same constituency in the 2017 general election an ...
, was found to have inappropriately touched a teenage member of SNP staff at Westminster and was suspended from the Commons as punishment. Grady's victim alleged that the "bullying" he received after he made the complaint was worse than the harassment itself and emailed colleagues to say that he had "no faith that a meaningful change" would be made to the party's handling of such complaints. In July, Oswald emailed the victim to say that she "fully appreciated that this is a difficult time for you" but also threatened him with disciplinary action unless he decided to "cease and desist from sending such further emails with immediate effect". She continued: "Should you choose to continue to do so, despite the terms of this communication, then it is only fair to put you on notice that this could be treated as misconduct and make you subject to further action under a disciplinary process. It is, of course, very much hoped that will not be necessary."
On 2 December 2022, the day after
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.
Or ...
announced he would be stepping down from his role as SNP Westminster leader, Oswald announced that she would be stepping down as deputy Westminster leader as well. "It seems sensible to me that a new leader and new deputy pick up the baton," she said. "And
he party willhave my support to do that."
Personal life
Oswald has been married to Davinder Bedi since 2002 and they have two sons. The family moved to
East Renfrewshire
East Renfrewshire ( sco, Aest Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù an Ear) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. Until 1975, it formed part of the county of Renfrewshire for local government purposes along with the modern council areas ...
in 2008.
Soon after Oswald's election in 2015, Bedi joined
Scottish Labour. It was acknowledged that Bedi had not campaigned for his wife during the election.
Oswald was head of
Human Resources
Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include ...
at
South Lanarkshire College
South Lanarkshire College is a further education institution in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. Its campus is located in East Kilbride, with new buildings completed in 2008 at a site between the town centre and the Kelvin industrial area.
The colle ...
for 12 years.
References
External links
profileat www.snp.org
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oswald, Kirsten
1972 births
21st-century Scottish women politicians
21st-century Scottish politicians
Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies
Human resource management people
Living people
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies
People educated at Carnoustie High School
Politicians from Dundee
Scottish National Party MPs
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2019–present