Pete Wishart

This article is about the Scottish MP and musician. For the English composer, see Peter Wishart (composer).

Pete Wishart MP
Member of Parliament for Perth and North Perthshire Tayside North (2001-2005)
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 June 2001
Preceded by	John Swinney
Majority	4,379 (9.1%)
Personal details
Born	9 March 1962 (1962-03-09) Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland
Nationality	Scottish
Political party	Scottish National Party
Relations	Married
Children	One son
Profession	Musician, community worker
Website	www.petewishartmp.com

Pete Wishart
Born	9 March 1962 (1962-03-09)
Origin	Scotland
Instruments	Keyboards
Years active	1981–present
Associated acts	Big Country Runrig MP4

Peter "Pete" Wishart (born 9 March 1962) is the Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Perth and North Perthshire. He was the SNP Chief Whip at Westminster from 2001–2007 and is currently the party's Westminster Spokesperson for the Constitution, Home Affairs, Culture, Media and Sport and International Development. He is also a notable musician chiefly associated with the folk-rock band Runrig.

Background

Born in Dunfermline in 1962, Wishart was educated at Queen Anne High School Dunfermline and Moray House College, Edinburgh. Wishart lives in Perth and has one son and enjoys walking in the Perthshire hills. Wishart is a trained Community Worker and has been a Director of the Fast Forward charity that promotes healthy lifestyles for young people. He was a member of the Scotland Against Drugs Campaign Committee and has contributed to many national forums looking at the problem of drugs within Scottish society.

Wishart was for 15 years a member of the Scottish group Runrig, and was the first MP to have appeared on the TV show Top of the Pops. Before Runrig, he had been in one of the lineups of Big Country. Donnie Munro, former lead singer of Runrig was to go on to an unsuccessful political career as a Labour party candidate. Wishart is a founder member of the parliamentary rock group MP4. The other members are Ian Cawsey (bass guitar and vocals), Greg Knight MP (drums) and Kevin Brennan MP (lead guitar and vocals).

House of Commons

He was first elected to the House of Commons at the 2001 general election, taking John Swinney's old seat of Tayside North. Since arriving at Westminster, he has served as the SNP's Chief Whip, in which role he has pressed the government for greater parliamentary rights, such as better representation on committees, for both the SNP and other minority parties. He has also campaigned for copyright term extension.

In the light of the reduction in the number of Scottish MPs at Westminster, Wishart's former constituency was abolished in a radical boundary revision, and at the 2005 election he won the new constituency of Perth and North Perthshire for the SNP with a majority of 1,521 over the Conservatives. The Perth and North Perthshire seat was created after boundary changes in Scotland and takes in East and Highland Perthshire, the City of Perth and the Carse of Gowrie. Wishart sat on the Scottish Affairs Select Committee. In November 2010, Wishart suggested that Scottish football referees should declare which club sides they support.

References

• Peter Wishart BBC Democracy Live

External links

• Constituency website
• Twitter site

Profiles

• Westminster profile
• SNP profile
• SNP Westminster Group
• BBC News Democracy Live
• STV News Profile
• Guardian profile
• Telegraph profile
• TheyWorkForYou.com
• The Public Whip - Voting Record

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by John Swinney	Member of Parliament for North Tayside 2001 – 2005	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Perth and North Perthshire 2005 – present	Incumbent