George Kerevan Explained

George Kerevan
Office:Member of Parliament
for East Lothian
Term Start:8 May 2015
Term End:3 May 2017
Predecessor:Fiona O'Donnell
Successor:Martin Whitfield
Birth Date:28 September 1949
Birth Place:Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Party:Alba (2021–)
Otherparty:IMG (1972–82)
SLP (1976)
Labour (1982–96)
SNP (1996–2021)
Alma Mater:University of Glasgow

George Kerevan (born 28 September 1949) is a Scottish journalist, economist, and politician. He was the Scottish National Party Member of Parliament (MP) for East Lothian from 2015, until he lost his seat to Martin Whitfield of the Labour Party at the 2017 general election.

Early life and education

Born in Glasgow, Kerevan was educated at Kingsridge Secondary School in Drumchapel[1] and the University of Glasgow, graduating with a First-class MA degree in political economy.[2]

Career

Kerevan held academic posts at Napier College, including Senior Lecturer in Economics, from 1975 to 2000, specialising in energy economics. He was associate editor of The Scotsman from 2000 to 2009, and was the chief executive of What If Productions (Television) Ltd. He is co-organiser of the Prestwick World Festival of Flight.[3]

Political career

Kerevan was a member of the International Marxist Group (IMG), a Trotskyist group, between 1972 and 1982.[4] During this time, alongside many other Scottish IMG activists, he joined Jim Sillars' fledgling Scottish Labour Party (SLP) using entryist tactics, a process that resulted in a purge of the IMG-associated members by Sillars at the party's first conference in October 1976.[5] [6] Following the demise of the IMG, Kerevan joined the Labour Party and served as a councillor for the party in Edinburgh from 1984 to 1996. In 1996, he left Labour to join the Scottish National Party.[7] He went on to stand unsuccessfully as the SNP candidate for Edinburgh East at the 2010 UK general election, as well as an SNP candidate in the Lothian region in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election.

Kerevan eventually stood successfully as the SNP candidate for East Lothian at the 2015 UK general election. He won 25,104 votes, a majority of 6,803, and unseated the then-incumbent Labour MP Fiona O'Donnell. He was a member of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee.[8] He subsequently lost his seat in the 2017 general election to Martin Whitfield of the Labour Party, who won with a majority of 3,083 votes over Kerevan.[9]

In March 2021, Kerevan defected from the SNP to the Alba Party.[10] He stood for Lothian East at the 2024 United Kingdom general election, where he finished in seventh place out of seven candidates, winning 577 votes and a 1.2% share.[11]

Selected works

He is the co-author, with Alan Cochrane, of Scottish Independence: Yes or No, published in April 2014.

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Harsh lesson is children need to work harder. Kerevan. George. 16 December 2011. The Scotsman. 21 April 2022.
  2. News: SNP brings seismic shift to Edinburgh politics . Ian . Swanson . . . 9 May 2015 . 11 May 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150518094942/http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/midlothian-elects-owen-thompson-as-council-leader-1-3194409 . 18 May 2015 . dead .
  3. News: Twin Pin planes to fly for Scottish homecoming trip . Alastair . Dalton . The Scotsman . 6 March 2013 . 30 July 2017.
  4. Web site: Defending a socialist programme. https://web.archive.org/web/20160628013429/http://redlug.com/cwi/DefendSoc.htm. 28 June 2016. Scottish Socialist Voice. 12 March 2018.
  5. Ben Jackson, The Case for Scottish Independence: A History of Nationalist Political Thought in Modern Scotland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), p. 101.
  6. H. M. Drucker, Breakaway: The Scottish Labour Party (Edinburgh: EUSPB, 1978), pp. 116-8.
  7. Book: Denver, DT. Scotland decides: the devolution issue and the 1997 referendum. Routledge. 2000. 978-0-7146-5053-1.
  8. Web site: Treasury Committee - membership . House of Commons . 8 July 2015 . 18 July 2015.
  9. Web site: Labour's Martin Whitfield elected as East Lothian's new MP. 9 June 2017. East Lothian Courier.
  10. News: Former SNP MP Kerevan becomes latest to defect to Alba Party. 30 March 2021. Express and Star.
  11. Web site: 2024-05-18 . East Lothian's MP to stand elsewhere, as county's former MP seeks to return . 2024-05-24 . East Lothian Courier . en.