Serena Mary Cowdy (born 1980) is an English politician and writer. She lives in Scotland and represents the

Scottish National Party (SNP) The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalism, Scottish nationalist and social democracy, social democratic list of political parties in Scotland, political party ...

on Angus Council.

Early life

Serena Cowdy was born in

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

in 1980. Her father was an actor and civil servant. Her parents divorced when she was seven and Cowdy was subsequently raised solely by her father in London after her mother remarried. Her grandfather on her mother's side, Andrew King, was an actor. Cowdy is of English and Irish ancestry.A Political Experience I Will Never Forget - What's Yours?
Serena Cowdy, ''Huffington Post'', 11 April 2015. Retrieved 19 May 2016. Cowdy is a graduate of

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, with a degree in Modern History from St Hilda's College.

Career

Cowdy had an early career acting in plays, short films and television adverts before turning to journalism. She worked as a consumer rights and personal finance journalist for various publications, and also covered political issues for ''The House'', the in-house magazine of the houses of Parliament, ''The Huffington Post'', and ''PoliticsHome''. She has a particular interest in

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

in politics, having studied

Irish nationalism Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cu ...

at university.

Personal life

In May 2016, questions were raised about expenses claims for hotel accommodation of two

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 ...

members 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. ...

Stewart Hosie Stewart Hosie PC (born 3 January 1963) is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Dundee East since 2005. He has served as the SNP Treasury Spokesperson since December 2022. He served as the SNP Sh ...

and

Angus MacNeil Angus Brendan MacNeil ( gd, Aonghas Brianan MacNèill; born 21 July 1970) is the Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of Parliament (MP) for covering the Outer Hebrides. Background MacNeil was educated at Castlebay Secondary School on the isla ...

, who were reported to have had relationships with Cowdy. Both MPs were reported to the Parliamentary expenses watchdog by a Conservative Party MP over their expenses claims, however, the

Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is an officer of the British House of Commons. The work of the officer is overseen by the Commons Select Committee on Standards. The current commissioner is Kathryn Stone. Duties The commissioner is i ...

Kathryn Hudson Kathryn Margaret Hudson (born 28 March 1949) was the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for the United Kingdom House of Commons. Appointed in September 2012, she served until 31 December 2017. She was previously (from 2008) Deputy Parliame ...

, ruled that there was no basis to launch an inquiry into the matter.Expenses of SNP MPs Hosie and MacNeil 'will not be investigated'.
BBC News, 26 May 2016. Retrieved 28 May 2016. Cowdy has been married to

MP since 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowdy, Serena Living people Alumni of St Hilda's College, Oxford English political journalists English bloggers English actresses 1980 births People from Peterborough English people of Irish descent British women bloggers 21st-century English women