Kirsten Oswald


Kirsten Frances Oswald is a Scottish National Party politician serving as the SNP Deputy Westminster Leader since 2020. First elected as the Member of Parliament for East Renfrewshire in 2015, she was unseated at the 2017 snap election but subsequently re-elected at the 2019 election.

Early life and education

Oswald was born in Dundee and grew up in Carnoustie where she attended Carnoustie High School. She attended Glasgow University where she read History. She moved to East Renfrewshire with her husband and two sons in 2008. Her mother was Helen Oswald, Provost of Angus Council. Oswald was head of Human Resources at South Lanarkshire College for twelve years.

Political career

Oswald became active in the Scottish National Party during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, serving on the committee of her local Women for Independence group where she was responsible for local food bank collections.
On 30 January 2015, it was announced that Oswald was selected as the SNP candidate for the East Renfrewshire constituency at the 2015 general election. During her campaign, she was criticised for sending letters to Conservative voters asking for their support to beat Labour. Oswald stated that her letters served to contrast voter values with negative campaign tactics from the Conservatives that focused on keeping the SNP out of power.
She won the seat with a majority of 3,718 votes, unseating the-then Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Jim Murphy. Murphy had held the seat since Labour's landslide victory eighteen years earlier, and resigned from the Scottish Labour leadership on 13 June 2015.
At the 2017 general election, Oswald lost her seat to Paul Masterton of the Conservatives, who won with a majority of 4,712 votes.
In 2018 she was elected Chairman and Business Convener of the SNP, replacing then Scottish Government Finance Secretary Derek MacKay.
She was selected by the SNP to contest for the East Renfrewshire seat in the 2019 general election, where she was re-elected with a majority of 5,426 votes or 9.8% - larger than her previous majority in 2015.
On 8 July 2020, she was elected deputy leader of the SNP in the House of Commons, succeeding Kirsty Blackman.