Owen George Thompson (born 17 March 1978) is a

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 ...

politician currently serving 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 of ...

(MP) for

Midlothian Midlothian (; gd, Meadhan Lodainn) is a historic county, registration county, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh, ...

. He was elected in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, defeated at the

2017 general election This national electoral calendar for 2017 lists the national/federal elections held in 2017 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *5 November ...

, and regained the seat at the 2019 general election.

Early life

Thompson is the son of the late Robert Thompson and Margaret Thompson. He was brought up in

Loanhead Loanhead is a town in Midlothian, Scotland, in a commuter belt to the south of Edinburgh, and close to Roslin, Bonnyrigg and Dalkeith. The town was built on coal and oil shale mining, and the paper industries. History Loanhead was a tiny villag ...

after moving there when he was seven. He studied accounting and finance at

Edinburgh Napier University , 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 , ...

Political career

Thompson had previously been the leader of

Midlothian Council Midlothian Council is the local authority for Midlothian, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, covering an area immediately south of the city of Edinburgh. The council is based in Dalkeith. Since the last boundary changes in 2017, eighteen co ...

. He was first elected to the council at the Loanhead by-election in 2005. At the age of 27, he was Scotland's youngest councillor at the time. He was then re-elected in the 2007 council election and again in the 2012 council election. He became deputy leader of the council in 2012, and leader in November 2013, succeeding his party colleague Bob Constable. He remained on the council until 2015. In December 2014, the Bonnyrigg, Loanhead and District SNP branch nominated Thompson to be the party's official candidate at the 2015 general election. He was elected as the MP for Midlothian with 24,453 votes, a 50.6% share of the votes cast. He was sworn into office at Westminster on 20 May 2015, and on the same day was given a position in the SNP Whips' Office under the SNP's chief whip,

Mike Weir Michael Richard Weir, (born May 12, 1970) is a Canadian professional golfer. He currently plays on the PGA Tour Champions. He spent over 110 weeks in the top-10 of the Official World Golf Ranking between 2001 and 2005. He plays golf left-handed ...

. Thompson narrowly lost his seat at the

Danielle Rowley Danielle Rowley (born 25 February 1990) is a Scottish Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Midlothian from 2017 to 2019. Early life and education Danielle Rowley was born on 25 February 1990 and grew up on a council e ...

of the Labour Party by 885 votes, receiving 34.4% of the overall vote share, compared to 36.4% for Rowley. However, two years later, at the 2019 election, he regained the seat, taking a 41.5% vote share and a majority of 5,705 (11.8%). In March 2021, Thompson was appointed chief whip for the SNP in Westminster after the resignation of

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 ...

. He was sacked by new leader Stephen Flynn in December 2022.

Personal life

Thompson lists his recreations as football and computer games.

References

External links

Profile
on SNP website
Personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Owen 1978 births Alumni of Edinburgh Napier University Living people Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies People from Loanhead Scottish National Party councillors Scottish National Party MPs UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2019–present