Christopher Charles Stephens (born 20 March 1973) 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 ...

(SNP) politician. He has been 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 Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

(MP) for Glasgow South West since the 2015 general election. He has been serving as SNP Spokesperson for Levelling Up since December 2022.

Early life and career

Stephens was born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

and was educated at Trinity High School, Renfrew and

James Watt College The James Watt College was a further education college in Greenock, Scotland. It is now part of West College Scotland. There were also campuses in Largs and Kilwinning which now form part of Ayrshire College as the result of the merger with Ki ...

Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, located in the west central Lowlands of ...

, where he studied public administration. He joined the SNP at the age of sixteen. He completed an apprenticeship at

Strathclyde Regional Council Strathclyde ( in Gaelic, meaning "strath (valley) of the River Clyde") was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government et ...

before working at the council. Stephens then worked for the

Glasgow City Council Glasgow City Council is the local government authority for the City of Glasgow, Scotland. It was created in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, largely with the boundaries of the post-1975 City of Glasgow district of th ...

. During this time, he joined the trade union

UNISON In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm. Definition Unison or pe ...

. Initially Stephens was their youth officer in Glasgow and was later promoted in that branch to treasurer and then vice-chair.

Political career

He first stood for the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the Parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom, supreme Legislature, legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of We ...

at the 2001 General Election, contesting the Hamilton North and Bellshill constituency. He contested the Glasgow Pollok constituency at the

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

and 2011

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 Holy ...

elections. In 2011 he came within 623 votes of taking the seat from

Johann Lamont Johann MacDougall Lamont (; born 11 July 1957) is a Scottish Labour Co-operative politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2011 to 2014. She was previously a junior Scottish Executive minister from 2004 to 2007 and De ...

. Stephens was 6th on the list of SNP candidates for the six Scottish seats in the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candi ...

, although as only the first two SNP candidates were elected, Stephens was not elected. He was elected to the UK Parliament in 2015, winning the contest for the Glasgow South West constituency with a majority of 10,000. Before the election, Stephens was the secretary of the

SNP Trade Union Group The SNP Trade Union Group (TUG) is a constituent structure and the largest affiliated organisation of the Scottish National Party (SNP). Formed in the mid to late 1960s as the Association of Scottish Nationalist Trade Unionists (ASNTU), the or ...

, a member of the party's National Executive Committee, and the convener of the SNP's Glasgow Pollok Constituency Association. In 2017, he retained his seat by a margin of just 60 votes. Stephens is a vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on South Africa and Chair of the

Public and Commercial Services Union The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) is the sixth largest trade union in the United Kingdom. Most of its members work in UK government departments and other public bodies. History The union was founded in 1998 by the merger of th ...

Parliamentary Group. In October 2016, Stephens was reported to have signed the highest number of

Early Day Motions In the Westminster parliamentary system, an early day motion (EDM) is a motion, expressed as a single sentence, tabled by members of Parliament that formally calls for debate "on an early day". In practice, they are rarely debated in the House ...

of any Member of Parliament. In March 2018, it was reported that he attempted to make two members of staff in his constituency office redundant, subsequently suspending them from employment, generating criticism from members of his own party.

Personal life

Stephens is married to Aileen Colleran, a former Labour councillor elected to Glasgow City Council until 2017. He employed his wife as a part-time parliamentary assistant from August 2017 to 30 April 2018.

References

External links

*
Profile
on SNP website {{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Chris 1973 births Living people Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Glasgow constituencies Scottish National Party MPs Scottish trade unionists UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present