Karen Whitefield

Karen Whitefield
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Airdrie and Shotts
In office 6 May 1999 – 6 May 2011
Preceded by	new constituency
Succeeded by	Alex Neil
Personal details
Born	(1970-01-08) 8 January 1970 Bellshill
Political party	Scottish Labour Party

Karen Whitefield (born 8 January 1970, Bellshill) is a Scottish politician and former Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Airdrie and Shotts constituency.

Political career

Prior to her election as MSP, she worked as a personal assistant to Rachel Squire MP.

MSP for Airdrie and Shotts:1999-2011

She was elected as MSP for Airdrie and Shotts at the 1999 Scottish Parliament general election. As an MSP she chaired the Parliament's Education Committee where she used her casting vote to reject the student graduate endowment bill, a Scottish National Party (SNP) flagship policy. It had the backing of the Liberal Democrats and SNP members, however not the Labour or Conservative members of the committee The bill was eventually passed through the Scottish Parliament by a vote of 67 to 61. Whitefield was Scottish Labour's shadow Minister for Children in the Scottish Parliament, and Convener of the Cross-Party Group on Diabetes under Iain Gray. At the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, she lost her seat to the SNP's Alex Neil, one of nine Labour MSP's to lose their constituency seats after holding them since the first elections to the Scottish Parliament in 1999.

Falkirk PPC: 2015

Following the resignation of sitting MP Eric Joyce, and the controversial and flawed 2013 Labour Party Falkirk candidate selection, in a re-run in which all the previous candidates were excluded on 8 December 2013 Whitefield was selected to contest the Falkirk constituency at the 2015 UK general election.

External links

• Karen Whitefield profile at the site of Scottish Labour

Scottish Parliament
New constituency	Member of the Scottish Parliament for Airdrie and Shotts 1999–2011	Succeeded by Alex Neil