| Mercedes Villalba | |
| Honorific-Suffix: | MSP |
| Office: | Member of the Scottish Parliament for North East Scotland |
| Term Start: | 8 May 2021 |
| Office1: | Shadow Minister for Environment and Biodiversity |
| Term Start1: | 1 June 2021 |
| Birth Place: | Bristol, England |
| Party: | Scottish Labour |
Mercedes Beatrice M. Villalba (born 1989) is a Scottish Labour politician who has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for North East Scotland since May 2021.
Villalba was born in 1989,[1] and is originally from Bristol, England. She settled in Dundee and was a shop steward with the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU).[2]
On 7 May 2021 she was unsuccessful as Labour's candidate for Dundee City West,[3] but the following day was elected as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) through the North East Scotland list.[4] She was appointed as Shadow Minister for Environment and Biodiversity in June 2021.[5]
In 2022, she called for the Labour whip to be restored to Jeremy Corbyn after having it suspended for failing to retract his remarks in response to the EHRC report into anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, as demanded by Keir Starmer and David Evans.[6]
She is an outspoken critic of the British royal family, and has called for its abolition.[7] [8]
On 6 July 2021, Villalba submitted a motion to demand an end to the US embargo on Cuba.[9]
In October 2023, just after the Hamas attack on Israel, Villalba expressed her position on the Palestine-Israel conflict through social media. She tweeted that she perceives the "systematic oppression and domination of Palestinians by the Israeli government" as a "crime against humanity", advocating for an end to the occupation of Palestine as a precondition for peace and justice.[10]