Pamela Nash
Nash in 2011
Member of Parliament
for Airdrie and Shotts
In office
6 May 2010 – 30 March 2015
Preceded byJohn Reid
Succeeded byNeil Gray
Personal details
Born (1984-06-24) 24 June 1984[1]
Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland
NationalityBritish
Political partyLabour

Pamela Nash (born 24 June 1984)[2] is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Airdrie and Shotts between 2010 and 2015. She is currently the Chief Executive of Scotland in Union, a campaign group launched in March 2015 to help keep Scotland within the United Kingdom. During her time in Parliament, she was the youngest MP in the House of Commons.

She is the official Labour candidate for Motherwell and Wishaw for the next UK general election.

Early life and career

Pamela Nash was born in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, and educated locally at St Margaret's High School, Airdrie and Chapelhall. Nash lost her mother and stepfather when she was 17.[3][4]

She spent her first summer after high school volunteering at a school in Nyeri, Kenya, and followed this up with a placement in Uganda during her time at university.[5] She studied politics at the University of Glasgow, specialising in human rights and international development.[5]

Nash was the parliamentary officer for the Young Fabians and a member of the Scottish Youth Parliament, where she served on the executive committee and was the convenor of the External Affairs Committee. She interned for John Reid for one year as his constituency assistant and subsequently was employed for a period of three years as his parliamentary assistant.[5]

Political career

Nash was selected as the Labour Party candidate from an all-women shortlist which, at the time, proved to be a contentious issue.[6] The constituency chairman, Brian Brady resigned over the issue. Nevertheless, 80% of the constituency Labour Party took part in the selection process.[7] She was elected as the Member of Parliament for Airdrie and Shotts in 2010, taking over from John Reid. She had a majority of 12,408 votes over the SNP candidate, and at the age of 25,[1] was the youngest MP in the House of Commons, also called Baby of the House.[8] Then-Scottish Labour Party leader, Iain Gray said she had a "big future in Scottish politics".[9]

Nash was the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the then Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, Jim Murphy. She was previously Parliamentary Private Secretary to Margaret Curran as Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland and to Vernon Coaker as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. She served on the Finance Bill 2011 Public Bill Committee.[10] Nash was a member of the Science and Technology Select Committee,[11] the Scottish Affairs Select Committee and the Parliamentary Space Committee.

Following the death of the MP for Inverclyde, David Cairns, she was elected as the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for HIV and AIDS.[12] She was also the Treasurer of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Multiple Sclerosis[13] and the Secretary of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sustainable Housing.[14] Nash also founded and chaired the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Youth Unemployment.[15]

In September 2010, Nash decided to support David Miliband in the Labour Party leadership election.[16] On 2 December 2010, Nash took part in a BBC debate on age differences in politics and the wider society with the Conservative MP Bill Cash.[17] Nash pledged to oppose the repeal of the Hunting Act 2004 which banned hunting of wild mammals with hounds.[18]

Nash has campaigned on issues such as Blacklisting in employment,[19] breaches of the National Minimum Wage, closure of local police stations and the Bedroom tax.[20][21]

Nash was narrowly reselected by the Airdrie and Shotts CLP to contest her seat at the 2015 UK general election. A total of 55 members voted for her to be reselected, out of 101 members who attended the October 2013 ballot, with 37 opposed.[22][23] At the 2015 general election however, Nash lost her seat to Neil Gray of the Scottish National Party, who won by a majority of 8,779 votes.[24]

In August 2017, it was announced that Nash would be the next Chief Executive of Scotland in Union, in succession to Graeme Pearson.[25]

In 2021, Nash attempted to be selected as the Labour candidate for the Airdrie and Shotts parliamentary by-election, however she was unsuccessful losing the nomination to Kenneth Stevenson. However, despite a swing towards Labour, the SNP retained the seat.[26][27]

On 20 April 2023, Nash announced to be the official Scottish Labour prospective parliamentary candidate for Motherwell and Wishaw at the next UK general election.[28]

References

  1. 1 2 The Week in Westminster, BBC Radio 4, 26 June 2010
  2. ↑ "Youngest Members of Parliament since 1979" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 October 2012. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  3. ↑ "Airdrie's Pamela is UK's youngest MP – Evening Times | News | Editor's Picks". Evening Times. 7 May 2010. Archived from the original on 21 September 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
  4. ↑ "Pamela Nash, 17; I feel like telling teen pals to be grateful when their mums make demands...no one is waiting for me". Thefreelibrary.com. 28 August 2002. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
  5. 1 2 3 "Pamela Nash personal web site | Biog". Pamela Nash. Archived from the original on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
  6. ↑ Gordon, Tom (29 March 2009). "Labour rebels may defy all-woman list to succeed Reid". Herald Scotland. Archived from the original on 6 October 2012. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
  7. ↑ "Holyrood magazine". Holyrood.com. 16 May 2011. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
  8. ↑ Howarth, Angus (8 May 2010). "General Election 2010: Pamela Nash, 25, becomes the Baby of the House". The Scotsman. Edinburgh. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
  9. ↑ "General Election 2010: 'Big future' for Scotland's youngest MP – Edinburgh Evening News". Edinburghnews.scotsman.com. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  10. ↑ "Public Bill Committee on the Finance Bill 2010 2011 | Membership". House of Commons. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  11. ↑ "Science and Technology Committee | Membership". House of Commons. Archived from the original on 26 August 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  12. ↑ "All Party Parliamentary Group on HIV and AIDS | Pamela Nash elected as chair". APPG on HIV and AID. Archived from the original on 31 March 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  13. ↑ "Multiple Sclerosis Society Website – Welcome to the MS Society – APPG". Mssociety.org.uk. Archived from the original on 7 August 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
  14. ↑ "Membership". Appg-sustainablehousing.org.uk. Archived from the original on 4 September 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
  15. ↑ "House of Commons – Register Of All-Party Groups as at 24 October 2013: Youth Unemployment". Publications.parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  16. ↑ "We're campaigning for every vote". Archived from the original on 16 September 2010. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
  17. ↑ "The Age Debate: Tory Bill Cash vs Labour MP Pamela Nash". BBC News. 2 December 2010. Archived from the original on 10 November 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  18. ↑ "SAVE ME 2010 | How mps stand – Is your MP FOR or AGAINST a repeal of the Hunting Act?". Save-me.org.uk. Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
  19. ↑ Mitchell, Robert (6 February 2013). "Shotts MP Pamela Nash fears constituents could be victims of construction industry blacklisting scandal". Daily Record. Archived from the original on 14 November 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  20. ↑ Tonner, Judith. "MP calls for bedroom tax to be abandoned – Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser". Acadvertiser.co.uk. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  21. ↑ Miller, Graham (6 March 2013). "Westminster diary: Airdrie and Shotts MP Pamela Nash slams bedroom tax". Daily Record. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  22. ↑ Tonner, Judith (3 October 2013). "Airdrie and Shotts MP Pamela Nash dodges bullet after Labour selection row". Archived from the original on 21 August 2017. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
  23. ↑ Whitaken, Andrew (29 September 2013). "How MP Pamela Nash escaped Labour selection battle". Scotsman. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  24. ↑ "Airdrie & Shotts parliamentary constituency – Election 2015 – BBC News". Archived from the original on 30 December 2016. Retrieved 9 December 2016 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  25. ↑ MacNab, Scott (21 August 2017). "Nash to lead pro-UK campaign group". The Scotman. Retrieved 21 August 2017.
  26. ↑ Airdrie & Shotts Labour [@AirdrieShottsLP] (25 March 2021). "Tonight, Airdrie and Shotts CLP selected @shottsman7 to be our candidate in the upcoming Westminster by-election. Congratulations Kenny, and thank you to @pamela_nash for her hard work also during the selection process" (Tweet). Retrieved 25 March 2021 – via Twitter.
  27. ↑ "Scotland in Union boss fails in bid to win back job as a Labour MP". The National. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  28. ↑ "Scotland in Union boss chosen as Scottish Labour General Election candidate". The National. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
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