Michael Shanks (politician)

Michael Graeme Shanks (born ) is a Scottish Labour politician. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Rutherglen and Hamilton West since winning a by-election on 5 October 2023.

Political career

Shanks was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2012 Glasgow City Council election, standing for Scottish Labour in the ward of Partick West and finishing fifth in the single transferable vote process. Four councillors were elected for the ward, making Shanks the only Labour Party candidate in Glasgow not to be elected. He contested the Glasgow Kelvin constituency in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, coming third, and the Glasgow North West constituency at the 2017 general election, coming second. Shanks resigned from the Labour Party on the day of the 2019 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, citing Brexit and antisemitism in the party, but re-joined when Keir Starmer became leader.

Having moved to Rutherglen from western Glasgow a year earlier, he was selected to contest the Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency in May 2023, in anticipation that Margaret Ferrier, the incumbent MP who had been sanctioned for breaches of COVID-19 restrictions, would lose her seat via a recall petition. Following her suspension from the House of Commons, Ferrier was unseated by a successful recall petition on 1 August. In the subsequent by-election on 5 October, Labour overturned the previous 9.7% Scottish National Party (SNP) majority to win with a majority of 31% and a swing of 24%, with 58.6% of the vote share.

Political views

Shanks is reported as saying he: "wasn't 'against' rejoining the EU and insisted he hadn't changed his principles over Brexit but that now was not the right time for a debate on the issue". During his by-election campaign Shanks said he would vote to abolish the two-child benefit cap. He supported the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill but said that "it could be much, much better".

Personal life

Shanks was born in in Ayrshire. He has a degree in history and politics from the University of Glasgow, and worked for a charity before retraining as a teacher in his late 20s, taking a PGDE at Glasgow. He was employed as a modern studies teacher at Park Mains High School in Erskine, Renfrewshire. He has also been involved in community and charity initiatives for disabled people and ran a scout group for disabled children.

In January 2022, he received news coverage for running all of Glasgow's 6,143 streets. He began running during the first COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020, having been motivated by an American athlete who had run every street in San Francisco in 30 days. Shanks described it as an "adventure" as opposed to a fitness challenge and completed it on 5 January 2022, when he ran down the city centre's George Square, which he had saved for last. Whilst running he gathered information about the area from people for a book he is planning on the social history of Glasgow inspired by the book ''Rambles Round Glasgow'' by Hugh MacDonald, and created an online journal of the project.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shanks, Michael
1980s births
Year of birth missing (living people)
Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Labour Co-operative MPs for Scottish constituencies
Living people
Modern studies teachers
People from Ayrshire
Politicians from Glasgow
Schoolteachers from Glasgow
Scottish Labour MPs
UK MPs 2019–present