Nicol Ross Stephen, Baron Stephen (born 23 March 1960) is a Scottish politician who served as Deputy First Minister of Scotland and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning from 2005 to 2007. A member of the

Scottish Liberal Democrats The Scottish Liberal Democrats ( gd, Pàrtaidh Libearal Deamocratach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Leeberal Democrats) is a liberal, federalist political party in Scotland, a part of the United Kingdom Liberal Democrats. The party currently holds 4 of ...

, he was the

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 add ...

(MSP) for Aberdeen South from 1999 to 2011, and was leader of the

from 2005 to 2008. Stephen was elected to the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyr ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

. Following the coalition agreement between the

and

Scottish Labour Scottish Labour ( gd, Pàrtaidh Làbarach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Labour Pairty; officially the Scottish Labour Party) is a social democratic political party in Scotland. It is an autonomous section of the UK Labour Party. From their peak of ...

, he became Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning. Later in the same parliamentary term he became Deputy Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs, and then for Education and Young People. Following the

2003 Scottish Parliament election The 2003 Scottish Parliament election was the second election of members to the Scottish Parliament. It was held on 1 May 2003 and it brought no change in terms of control of the Scottish Executive. Jack McConnell, the Labour Party MSP, rema ...

, he joined the Scottish Executive cabinet as

Minister for Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government ag ...

. In 2005, following the resignation of his predecessor Jim Wallace, Stephen was elected leader of the party and also became deputy first minister and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning. He led his party into the 2007 election, where it won 16 seats (down one on

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A ...

). He resigned as party leader on 2 July 2008, triggering a

leadership election A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party. Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a l ...

. In 2011 he joined the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...

. He became a patron of The Aberdeen Law Project in 2011.

Background and family life

Born in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...

, he was educated at

Robert Gordon's College Robert Gordon's College is a co-educational Independent school (UK) for day pupils in Aberdeen, Scotland. The school caters for pupils from Nursery through to S6. History Robert Gordon, an Aberdeen merchant, made his fortune in 18th century ...

and at the

University of Aberdeen , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

, where he obtained an LLB in 1980. He then took his

Diploma in Legal Practice A diploma is a document awarded by an educational institution (such as a college or university) testifying the recipient has graduated by successfully completing their courses of studies. Historically, it has also referred to a charter or offici ...

at the

University of Edinburgh School of Law Edinburgh Law School, founded in 1707, is a school within the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom dedicated to research and teaching in law. It is located in the historic Old College, University of Edinburgh, Old College, the ori ...

and worked for a number of years as a solicitor before moving into

corporate finance Corporate finance is the area of finance that deals with the sources of funding, the capital structure of corporations, the actions that managers take to increase the value of the firm to the shareholders, and the tools and analysis used to all ...

as a senior manager with Deloitte & Touche. He was a former Chair of CREATE (a group campaigning for

rail electrification A railway electrification system supplies electric power to railway trains and trams without an on-board prime mover or local fuel supply. Electric railways use either electric locomotives (hauling passengers or freight in separate cars), ele ...

between Aberdeen and Edinburgh); a chairperson of STAR (Save

Tor-na-Dee Hospital Tor-Na-Dee Hospital was a health facility at Milltimber, Aberdeen, Scotland. History The hospital, which was established as part of an initiative by Dr Alexander Stewart to provide services to patients with rheumatism, opened as Deeside Hydropath ...

and

Roxburghe House Roxburghe House is a specialist palliative care unit which is situated near Foresterhill, Aberdeen, Scotland. It is managed by NHS Grampian. History Roxburghe House was established as a hospice and palliative care facility within the grounds of ...

); and the founder and director of Grampian Enterprise. He is married with 4 children.

Early political career

He was elected to Grampian Regional Council in 1982 (as Scotland's youngest councillor) and was Chair of Grampian's Economic Development and Planning Committee from 1986 to 1991. He was briefly a

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 ...

for the

Kincardine and Deeside Kincardine and Deeside was formerly (1975–96) a local government district in the Grampian Region of Scotland. In 1996 it was included in the Aberdeenshire unitary area. History This region is rich in prehistory with numerous megalithic site ...

constituency, elected in the November 1991 by-election following the death of

Conservative and Unionist The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party and also known colloquially as the Tories, is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party. It is the current governing party, ...

Alick Buchanan-Smith. He was a member of the Liberal Democrat treasury team and spokesperson on small business during his time in the House of Commons. The seat returned to the Conservative and Unionist party at the 1992 general election, when it was won by George Kynoch. He later stood for the Aberdeen South constituency in the 1997 election for Aberdeen South, but was defeated by the

candidate.

Scottish Parliament

Minister and Deputy Minister roles

Nicol Stephen was elected as MSP for Aberdeen South in the first elections to the Scottish Parliament. He later helped negotiate the Partnership Agreement for the coalition government with the Labour Party. He later served in the Scottish Executive as Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning (1999 to 2000), then as Deputy Minister for Education, Europe and External Affairs (2000 to 2001), and as Deputy Minister for Education and Young People (2001 to 2003). Following the 2003 election, he was appointed Minister for Transport. During his time in this post, he was responsible for approving the controversial M74 extension.

Deputy First Minister

Following the resignation of Jim Wallace in May 2005 as leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Nicol Stephen announced his intention to stand for the leadership. He defeated rival candidate, Mike Rumbles, who advocated ending the coalition agreement with the Scottish Labour Party, winning 76.6%, becoming party leader on 23 June 2005. Four days later on 27 June 2005, he was appointed Deputy First Minister of Scotland. Following his leadership victory, a mini-reshuffle of the Scottish Cabinet, saw him take on the role of Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning.

Opposition

Following the 2007 general election, the SNP emerged as the largest party by one seat but short of an overall majority, they held discussions with the

Scottish Green Party The Scottish Greens (also known as the Scottish Green Party; gd, Pàrtaidh Uaine na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Green Pairtie) are a green political party in Scotland. The party has seven MSPs in the Scottish Parliament as of May 2021. As of the 20 ...

and also intimated that it would be open to discussions with the Liberal Democrats. However, since the Liberal Democrats had indicated that they would not enter discussions with parties which continued to favour a referendum on independence, no formal talks were held. The SNP became a

minority administration A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats i ...

and officially entered government on May 17, 2007, Nicol Stephen ceased to be Deputy First Minister and began led his party to the opposition benches. Despite being out of government, his party worked with the SNP Government on certain issues where they broadly agreed, including replacing the

Council Tax Council Tax is a local taxation system used in England, Scotland and Wales. It is a tax on domestic property, which was introduced in 1993 by the Local Government Finance Act 1992, replacing the short-lived Community Charge, which in turn re ...

with a local income tax to fund a proportion of local government revenue. He developed a reputation among some journalists as an effective and forceful critic of some aspects of the Scottish Government's policy and performance, especially at First Minister's Question Time. Along with Wendy Alexander and

Annabel Goldie Annabel MacNicoll Goldie, Baroness Goldie (born 27 February 1950) is a Scottish politician and life peer who served as Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party from 2005 to 2011 and has served as Minister of State for Defence since 2019. She ...

, he took his party into the

Commission on Scottish Devolution The Commission on Scottish Devolution ( gd, Coimisean Fèin-riaghlaidh na h-Alba, sco, Commeessioun on Scots Devolutioun), also referred to as the Calman Commission or the Scottish Parliament Commission or Review, was established by an oppositi ...

chaired by Sir Kenneth Calman, but was opposed to any suggestion that this would result in powers of the Parliament being returned to Westminster.

Resignation as party leader

On 2 July 2008, Nicol Stephen announced he was stepping down as party leader with immediate effect because of the pressures of leading a political party while having a young family based in

, some distance from Parliament in

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

. Nicol Stephen's resignation took many in

Scottish politics The politics of Scotland operate within the constitution of the United Kingdom, of which Scotland is a home nation. Scotland is a democracy, being represented in both the Scottish Parliament and the Parliament of the United Kingdom since the ...

by surprise, and came only four days after the resignation of the former leader of Labour in the Scottish Parliament, Wendy Alexander. He was succeeded by Tavish Scott. On 24 September 2010, Nicol Stephen announced he would not be standing again at the Scottish elections in May 2011.

House of Lords

On 2 February 2011, he was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

as Baron Stephen, of

Lower Deeside Lower Deeside is a region along the River Dee in Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen in Scotland. The boundaries of this area are subject to interpretation, since the usage has altered through historic times; however, the area is generally associated wit ...

in the

City of Aberdeen gd, Comhairle Cathair Obar Dheathain , native_name_lang = , other_name = , image_skyline = Town House, Municipal Offices and Court Houses in Aberdeen.jpg , image_caption ...

, and was introduced in the

on 7 February 2011, where he sits on the Liberal Democrat benches. He said he would use his new position to help reform the House of Lords.

References

External links

* *
Nicol Stephen MSP
profile at the site of Scottish Liberal Democrats {{DEFAULTSORT:Stephen, Nicol 1960 births Living people Deputy First Ministers of Scotland Leaders of the Scottish Liberal Democrats Scottish Liberal Democrat MPs Liberal Democrat MSPs UK MPs 1987–1992 Members of the Scottish Parliament 1999–2003 Members of the Scottish Parliament 2003–2007 Members of the Scottish Parliament 2007–2011 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Scottish Liberal Democrat councillors Scottish solicitors Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Alumni of the University of Edinburgh People educated at Robert Gordon's College Members of the Scottish Parliament for Aberdeen constituencies Liberal Democrats (UK) life peers Life peers created by Elizabeth II Scottish political candidates Liberal Democrats (UK) parliamentary candidates