Christina McKelvie

Christina McKelvie MSP
Convener of the Scottish Parliament European and External Relations Committee
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 June 2011
Preceded by	Irene Oldfather
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 May 2011
Preceded by	Tom McCabe (as MSP for Hamilton South)
Majority	2213
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Central Scotland
In office 3 May 2007 – 6 May 2011
Personal details
Born	(1968-03-04) 4 March 1968
Political party	Scottish National Party

Christina McKelvie (born 4 March 1968 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a Member of the Scottish Parliament for Central Scotland. She was elected as a Scottish National Party (SNP) party list candidate in the 2007 election, and has been MSP for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse since the 2011 election.

Early life

McKelvie grew up in Easterhouse, in the East End of Glasgow where she studied at St Leonards Secondary then went on to gain qualifications from Anniesland College, Cardonald College, and St Andrews University. She was a senior trade unionist before entering politics.

Political Life

Within the Scottish Parliament, McKelvie is the convenor of the European and External Relations Committee. Locally, she has campaigned to support the David Livingstone Centre, and against the detention of child asylum seekers at Dungavel.

Between April 2013 and March 2014, McKelvie claimed the second highest amount of parliamentary expenses of the 14 MSPs representing Lanarkshire. She maintained that this was due to inflation.

Controversies

In a radio interview with Kirsty Wark in February 2012, McKelvie suggested that an independent Scotland could adopt the Chinese Yuan or US Dollar as its official currency if the Bank of England refused to include Scotland in a sterling-zone. She was roundly criticised by opposition politicians for these suggestions.

In 2013 McKelvie caused controversy when she posted a tweet on the social networking site Twitter with the remark "I'm YES Positive. And I've got the Scottish Virus" in response to comments that the leader of the Scottish Labour Party Johann Lamont MSP made about nationalism at the Labour Party conference in Brighton. It was suggested by opponents and fellow SNP members that McKelvie was making light of the situation of HIV sufferers however she vehemently denied this.

In 2014, whilst chairing a Scottish Parliament Committee, McKelvie cut off Professor Adam Tomkins, who was giving evidence to the committee. When challenged about her power to prevent a witness from giving evidence, she replied "I can if it’s becoming contentious... I’m the convener and I can decide". Tomkins subsequently wrote to McKelvie complaining that he had been treated with disrespect by the Committee, and asked for an apology.

After the author J.K. Rowling announced that she would be donating £1 million to the Better Together campaign she faced online abuse from so-called Cybernats on various social media sites. Writing in the Hamilton Advertiser, McKelvie implied that secret service agents were responsible for the abuse rather than pro-independence campaigners.

McKelvie caused controversy after falsely suggesting on Twitter that a 'first time voter' on the televised General Election debate in April 2015 was a Labour activist. The voter claimed that she had been distressed after receiving abuse on Twitter following McKelvie's tweet.

See also

• Government of the 3rd Scottish Parliament

External links

• Scottish Parliament biography
• Christina McKelvie MSP Website