Brendan O'Hara (born 27 April 1963) is a

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

(SNP) politician. He serves as Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber since the 2024 election, having previously represented the

Argyll and Bute Argyll and Bute (; , ) is one of 32 unitary authority, unitary council areas of Scotland, council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod ...

constituency from 2015 to 2024. He was the SNP spokesperson for Foreign Affairs from 2023 to 2024. He served as the SNP Digital, Culture, Media and Sport spokesperson from 2017 to 2018, the SNP Defence spokesperson from 2015 to 2017, SNP International Development spokesperson from 2022 to 2023, and SNP Chief Whip in 2023.

Early life and education

Born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, O'Hara was educated at St Andrew's Secondary in

Carntyne Carntyne (; ) is a suburban district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated north of the River Clyde, and in the east end of the city. it has formed the core of the East Centre (ward), East Centre ward under Glasgow City Council, which ...

and attended Strathclyde University, from where he graduated with a 2:1 in Economic History and Modern History.

Director and producer

He has had a successful career as a TV producer. He wrote, produced and directed the ''Road To Referendum'' documentary series, which was broadcast on STV in 2013 and was subsequently nominated for a BAFTA Scotland award in the Current Affairs category. He has worked for STV,

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

and the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. His credits include ''Comedy Connections'' and ''Movie Connections'' (BBC1), ''The Football Years'' (STV), and ''Scotland's Greatest Album'' (STV). O'Hara also worked on

David Hayman David Hayman (born 9 February 1948) is a Scottish film, television and stage actor and director from Glasgow. His acting credits include '' Sid and Nancy'' (1986), '' Hope and Glory'' (1987), '' Rob Roy'' (1995), '' The Jackal'' (1997), '' Tri ...

's second series, following in the footsteps of

Tom Weir Thomas Weir Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, MBE (29 December 1914 – 6 July 2006) was a Scottish climber, author and broadcaster. He was best known for his long-running television series ''Weir's Way''. Early life a ...

Political career

O'Hara was an unsuccessful SNP candidate on two occasions. He contested Glasgow Springburn at the 1987 UK general election, receiving 3,554 votes (a 10.2% share). He also stood in Glasgow Central at the 1992 UK general election and gained 6,322 votes (a 20.8% share). In 2015, he received 22,959 votes (44.3% share) in Argyll & Bute, and unseated the sitting Liberal Democrat MP Alan Reid by 8,473 votes. On 20 May 2015, he was appointed the party's spokesman for defence. He was the first of the 2015 intake to make his

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 ...

. At the 2017 snap general election he successfully retained his seat; however, with a reduced majority of 1,328 votes to the Conservative party. At the 2019 general election he retained his seat with a majority of 4,110. He was elected to the new seat in 2024.

References

External links

Profile
on SNP website * {{DEFAULTSORT:OHara, Brendan Alumni of the University of Strathclyde 1963 births Living people Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Politicians from Glasgow Scottish National Party MPs Scottish people of Irish descent Scottish television producers UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–2024 UK MPs 2024–present