Gavin Newlands


Gavin Andrew Stuart Newlands is a Scottish National Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, who has served since the 2015 general election.
Newlands is the first ever MP for the constituency to be elected from the SNP. At the 2017 general election, Newlands was re-elected, with a reduced majority of 9,076 votes to 2,613. Subsequently, at the 2019 election Newlands achieved his biggest majority in the seat, of 11,902 or 24.0% of the vote.

Early life

Newlands was born in the old Paisley Maternity Hospital in 1980 and raised in the town of Renfrew, where he currently resides with wife, Lynn and their two children. He was educated at Renfrew's St James' Primary and Trinity High School. While enrolled at James Watt College, Newlands was offered a promotion in his part-time job at McDonalds, and dropped out of college.
Newlands has been a member of the SNP for 25 years. He joined the youth wing of the party in 1992 at the age of twelve, getting involved during the campaigns against the poll tax. He became a local community council councillor for Renfrew in 2011 and has supported local causes, including a West of Scotland foodbank.
Newlands was a member of Paisley Rugby Club for 16 years, serving as club captain for three years.

Parliamentary career

Newlands was selected to stand for election for the Scottish National Party in January 2015 after securing the support of local party members following an internal selection process. He was elected to the House of Commons at the 2015 Westminster election when he overturned the incumbent Labour MP's 15,280 majority and emerged with a majority of 9,076 votes for himself - representing a 26.47% swing to Newlands and the SNP.
He is currently the Westminster SNP Spokesperson on Sport, Wales, and Northern Ireland, as well as being Chair of the White Ribbon All-Party Parliamentary Group on Male Violence Against Women and is Chair of the APPG on Scottish Sport. He serves on the Justice Select Committee.
The constituency office for Gavin Newlands is in Porterfield Road, in Renfrew.