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Katy Clark
Katy Clark, Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (born 3 July 1967), is a British politician and life peer who has served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the West Scotland region since the 2021 Scottish Parliament election. A member of the Labour Party, she was previously the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Ayrshire and Arran from 2005 to 2015.
Clark was born in Kilwinning, and went to Ayr Grammar Primary School then Kyle Academy, both in Ayr, before attending the University of Aberdeen, receiving an LLB in 1990. She was Chair of Aberdeen University Labour Club, NUS (Scotland) Women's Officer and active in women's campaigns, anti-poll tax campaigning, and the campaigns against the Gulf and Iraq Wars. She received a Diploma in Legal Practice from the University of Edinburgh in 1991. She qualified as a solicitor in England, Scotland and Wales specialising in civil litigation, criminal defence work and employment law. She was active in the MSF trade union and Edinburgh and District Trades Council in the 1990s before joining the TGWU in 1998.
She was a solicitor in private practice in Edinburgh and Musselburgh from 1991 to 1998, an Executive Member of the Scottish Council for Civil Liberties, and a legal officer, then Head of Membership Legal Services with UNISON nationally from 1998 to 2005. Whilst at the latter organisation, she undertook employment litigation, including Europe's biggest equal pay case, in which she won £35m in back pay for female nurses and other medical staff in the North West of England who had been unlawfully underpaid compared with their male colleagues.
She joined the Labour Party at the age of seventeen and is a member of the Unite, GMB and UNISON trade unions. Her great-great grandfather, Alexander ("Sandy") Sloan, was Labour MP for South Ayrshire from 1939 until his death in 1945.
Clark unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary seat of Galloway and Upper Nithsdale at the 1997 general election, a traditional Conservative and Scottish National Party (SNP) marginal. She finished in third place behind the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Ian Lang, who lost his seat to the SNP's Alasdair Morgan.
She was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the new seat of North Ayrshire and Arran, based substantially on the former seat of Cunninghame North, whose MP Brian Wilson had retired, and the towns of Stevenston and Kilwinning from the old Cunninghame South. She had a majority of 11,296, and made her maiden speech on 7 June 2005. She was nominated for House magazine's 'Maiden Speech of the Year'. Following the election, The Guardian named her as one of eight new MPs "to watch".
One of the few left-wing members of Labour's 2005 intake of MPs, she was a member of the Socialist Campaign Group and a founder member of the Scottish Labour Party Campaign for Socialism. Of the twenty-four members of the Campaign Group, she was the only one under the age of 50.
In 2010, Clark was one of only seven MPs to vote for left-winger Diane Abbott in the 2010 Labour Leadership Election. In February 2013, she was among those who gave their support to the People's Assembly Against Austerity in a letter published by The Guardian newspaper, and was co-chair of the Labour Assembly Against Austerity.
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Katy Clark
Katy Clark, Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (born 3 July 1967), is a British politician and life peer who has served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the West Scotland region since the 2021 Scottish Parliament election. A member of the Labour Party, she was previously the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Ayrshire and Arran from 2005 to 2015.
Clark was born in Kilwinning, and went to Ayr Grammar Primary School then Kyle Academy, both in Ayr, before attending the University of Aberdeen, receiving an LLB in 1990. She was Chair of Aberdeen University Labour Club, NUS (Scotland) Women's Officer and active in women's campaigns, anti-poll tax campaigning, and the campaigns against the Gulf and Iraq Wars. She received a Diploma in Legal Practice from the University of Edinburgh in 1991. She qualified as a solicitor in England, Scotland and Wales specialising in civil litigation, criminal defence work and employment law. She was active in the MSF trade union and Edinburgh and District Trades Council in the 1990s before joining the TGWU in 1998.
She was a solicitor in private practice in Edinburgh and Musselburgh from 1991 to 1998, an Executive Member of the Scottish Council for Civil Liberties, and a legal officer, then Head of Membership Legal Services with UNISON nationally from 1998 to 2005. Whilst at the latter organisation, she undertook employment litigation, including Europe's biggest equal pay case, in which she won £35m in back pay for female nurses and other medical staff in the North West of England who had been unlawfully underpaid compared with their male colleagues.
She joined the Labour Party at the age of seventeen and is a member of the Unite, GMB and UNISON trade unions. Her great-great grandfather, Alexander ("Sandy") Sloan, was Labour MP for South Ayrshire from 1939 until his death in 1945.
Clark unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary seat of Galloway and Upper Nithsdale at the 1997 general election, a traditional Conservative and Scottish National Party (SNP) marginal. She finished in third place behind the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Ian Lang, who lost his seat to the SNP's Alasdair Morgan.
She was elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the new seat of North Ayrshire and Arran, based substantially on the former seat of Cunninghame North, whose MP Brian Wilson had retired, and the towns of Stevenston and Kilwinning from the old Cunninghame South. She had a majority of 11,296, and made her maiden speech on 7 June 2005. She was nominated for House magazine's 'Maiden Speech of the Year'. Following the election, The Guardian named her as one of eight new MPs "to watch".
One of the few left-wing members of Labour's 2005 intake of MPs, she was a member of the Socialist Campaign Group and a founder member of the Scottish Labour Party Campaign for Socialism. Of the twenty-four members of the Campaign Group, she was the only one under the age of 50.
In 2010, Clark was one of only seven MPs to vote for left-winger Diane Abbott in the 2010 Labour Leadership Election. In February 2013, she was among those who gave their support to the People's Assembly Against Austerity in a letter published by The Guardian newspaper, and was co-chair of the Labour Assembly Against Austerity.