Bob Doris


Bob Doris is a Scottish National Party MSP for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, initially elected at the 2016 Scottish Parliament election.

Life and career

Bob Doris was born in the Vale of Leven, Dunbartonshire and educated at the University of Glasgow earning an MA in Social Sciences. At the 2007 election Doris contested the Glasgow Maryhill Scottish Parliament constituency, finishing second to Patricia Ferguson, majority 2,300.
Prior to the election Doris had acted as campaign manager to Bill Wilson when Wilson challenged John Swinney for the SNP leadership in 2003. Doris convened the SNP Maryhill Constituency Branch and Glasgow Regional Association SNP for a number of years. Before the 2007 Scottish Parliamentary elections Doris was set to be council candidate for the Maryhill/Kelvin ward at the Glasgow City Council elections of 2007. He resigned his nomination for the Council seat to avoid the possibility of being elected on a dual mandate.
Since his election, Doris campaigned successfully on a number of issues including free school meals, kinship care payments and Town Centre Regeneration Fund money for Glasgow. He was a leading campaigner against Glasgow City Council's closure of 20 primary and nursery schools, and supported the parental occupation of Wyndford Primary School and St Gregory's Primary School, both in Maryhill. Doris convenes the Scottish Parliament's cross party group on Racial Equality in Scotland and the cross-party group on Rare, Genetic And Undiagnosed Conditions.
In a YouTube video, Doris encouraged anyone of Irish descent to tick "Irish" as their ethnicity in the 2011 Scottish Census.
In 2011, Doris was the SNP candidate for the redrawn seat of Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn. He was also placed 3rd on the SNP regional list for Glasgow behind Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf. He was unsuccessful in gaining Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn, losing to Labour's Patricia Ferguson, but was returned as one of two Glasgow list SNP MSPs alongside Yousaf.
In the 2016 election, he defeated Patricia Ferguson and was elected as the constituency member for Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn.