Dr Philippa Whitford (born 24 December 1958) is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician and a breast surgeon. She was 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

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in May 2015 and was re-elected in

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and

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. She has been serving as the SNP Spokesperson for Scotland since December 2022. She served as the SNP Health spokesperson 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 ...

from 2015 to 2021.

Early life and education

Whitford was born in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

to Elizabeth and Philip Whitford. The family moved to Scotland when she was aged ten. She was educated at Wood Green: St Angela's Providence Convent Secondary School in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

Douglas Academy Douglas Academy is a non-denominational, co-educational, comprehensive secondary school in the town of Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire, serving the Milngavie, Craigton and Baldernock areas. Douglas Academy is one of Scotland's top performing st ...

Milngavie Milngavie ( ; gd, Muileann-Ghaidh) is a town in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland and a suburb of Glasgow. It is on the Allander Water, at the northwestern edge of Greater Glasgow, and about from Glasgow city centre. It neighbours Bearsden. Mi ...

, before studying 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 , ...

, where she graduated with

medical degrees Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practice ...

. She was the first woman in her family to gain admission to university.

Career

Surgical career

Whitford worked as a consultant breast surgeon at Crosshouse Hospital for more than 18 years. Just after the First Gulf War and during the

First Palestinian Intifada The First Intifada, or First Palestinian Intifada (also known simply as the intifada or intifadah),The word ''intifada'' () is an Arabic word meaning "uprising". Its strict Arabic transliteration is '. was a sustained series of Palestinian ...

at the age of thirty, Whitford served for a year and a half as a medical volunteer in a

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hospital in the

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. She spent the 2016 parliamentary recess travelling to the West Bank to operate on four women suffering from breast cancer, and visited Gaza to advise local hospitals on how to improve healthcare.

Political career

Whitford joined the Scottish National Party in 2012. She became involved with the campaign preceding the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. She advocated independence as a way of protecting

NHS Scotland NHS Scotland, sometimes styled NHSScotland, is the publicly funded healthcare system in Scotland and one of the four systems that make up the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. It operates 14 territorial NHS boards across Scotland, ...

from the same kind of "creeping privatisation agenda undermining services in England". An online video of her claiming the NHS in England would be privatised within five years and in Scotland within ten went viral at this time. “In five years, England will not have an NHS and in 10 years, if we vote no, neither will we," she said.

House of Commons

Whitford was selected to contest

for the SNP at the 2015 general election. She polled 26,999 votes – 53.2% of the vote – defeating the incumbent Labour MP, Brian Donohoe, by 13,589 votes. She made her

maiden speech A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament. Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country. In many Westminster system governments, there is a convention th ...

in the House of Commons on 2 June 2015. She was a member of the Joint Committee on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill, but left the committee on 11 March 2019 to be replaced by

Liz Saville Roberts Elizabeth Saville Roberts (' Saville; born 16 December 1964) is a Welsh politician, currently serving as the group leader of Plaid Cymru in the House of Commons. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dwyfor Meirionnydd since the gene ...

. In August 2020 after the SNP's rules on candidate selection were changed, meaning MPs seeking election to Holyrood would have to resign their seat at Westminster, Whitford tweeted "For ALL NPMPs - now trapped at Westminster with no straightforward way to put themselves forward for Scotland’s own Parliament. No one ever mentioned this before any of us stood for Westminster." The tweet provoked an angry response from political opponents, with Labour's

Monica Lennon Monica Lennon (' Ward; born 7 January 1981) is a Scottish politician who has served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Central Scotland region since 2016. A member of the Scottish Labour Party, she has served in various roles ...

responding that, "Representing your community is a privilege and responsibility like no other... If SNP MPs feel 'trapped' they should release themselves and let others serve." In March 2021 Whitford compared Scotland's position as part of the United Kingdom to a woman "locked" in a room and who had had her cheque book “taken away”. The remarks were condemned as "appalling" by Scottish Labour's Deputy leader

Jackie Baillie Jacqueline Marie Baillie (' Barnes; born 15 January 1964) is a Scottish politician who has served as Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party since 2020. She has been Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Dumbarton constituency sinc ...

who said: "There is a constant challenge to ensure that domestic abuse is taken seriously and for the gravity of such offences to be properly recognised, so no one, let alone an MP, should ever trivialise the matter by making such throw away comments which will have deeply offended people."

Personal life

Whitford has been married to Hans Pieper, a

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citizen who works as a general practitioner, since 1987; the couple have a son together.

Titles

*Dr Philippa Whitford *Dr Philippa Whitford MP (2015–present)

References

External links

personal websitebiography
on

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

profile
on SNP website {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitford, Philippa 1958 births Alumni of the University of Glasgow Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Living people Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Scottish National Party MPs Scottish surgeons UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present 21st-century Scottish women politicians 21st-century Scottish politicians Scottish women medical doctors People educated at Douglas Academy Women surgeons