Kenny Macaskill is the Alba Party MP for East Lothian, having first been elected to Parliament in 2019, gaining the seat off the Labour Party with a majority of 3,886 for the SNP.
In early 2021, Macaskill was one of two MPs who defected from the SNP to join the Alba Party set up by the former SNP leader Alex Salmond.
The East Lothian constituency is a coastal constituency found to the east of Edinburgh. It covers the towns of Muselburgh, Tranent, and Dunbar. Traditionally a Labour seat it was first won by the SNP in 2015, before being recaptured by Labour in 2017, and then falling back to the SNP in 2019.
A veteran of Scottish politics, Macaskill was a Member of the Scottish Parliament from its establishment in 1999 through to 2016. He served as Scottish Justice Secretary from 2007 until 2014, during which time he was involved in the release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, on compassionate grounds.
Macaskill was an active campaigner against the poll tax when it was first introduced by Margaret Thatcher into Scotland in the 1980s.
He regularly writes a column for the Scots Magazine and the Scotsman.
Born in 1958, Kenny Macaskill studied law at the University of Edinburgh. He then worked as a solicitor and was a senior partner in an Edinburgh law firm, before being first elected to the Scottish Parliament.
At Westminster, he is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Chile, Alcohol harm, Hospitality and Tourism, Illicit trade, Legal and Constitutional affairs, Trade Justice.
Email – kenny.macaskill.mp@parliament.uk
Website – kennymacaskillmp.scot
Twitter – @KennyMacAskill
