Lisa Cameron


Lisa Cameron is a Scottish National Party politician and consultant clinical psychologist. She has been the Member of Parliament for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow since winning the seat at the 2015 general election. She was re-elected at the 2017 and 2019 general elections.
Cameron was born in Glasgow, and grew up in East Kilbride. She obtained a BSc in Psychology from the University of Strathclyde, an MSc in Psychology and Health from the University of Stirling and a doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Glasgow. Before entering politics, Cameron worked as a clinical psychologist.

Early life and career

Lisa Cameron was born on 8 April 1972 to Campbell McCulloch and Sandra Cameron in Glasgow, Scotland and grew up in Westwood, East Kilbride. Her early education was at South Park Primary School, East Milton Primary School and Duncanrig Secondary School. She attended the University of Strathclyde where she graduated with a BSc. degree in Psychology. Cameron went on to gain an MSc. degree in Psychology and Health from the University of Stirling before gaining her DClinPsy. degree from the University of Glasgow. After her completing her higher education, Cameron specialised in forensic and clinical psychology and worked as a clinical psychologist in the NHS and as an assessor for the Scottish Risk Management Authority.
Cameron voted in favour of Scottish independence at the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. After the referendum results were announced, in which Scotland voted to remain part of the United Kingdom; she joined the Scottish National Party. Cameron has also been a trade union representative for Unite for more than a decade.

Parliamentary career

Cameron was selected to contest the East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow seat for the SNP at the 2015 UK general election. She received 33,678 votes, with a majority of 16,527 votes over the sitting Labour MP, Michael McCann. The seat and its predecessor, East Kilbride, had been controlled by the Labour Party since 1974.
Cameron was the first clinical psychologist to be elected as an MP to the House of Commons. During the 2015–17 parliament, Cameron was part of the International Development Committee and the International Development Sub-Committee on the Work of the Independent Commission for Aid Impact. On 5 January 2016, the Scottish Daily Mail published a story which accused Cameron of "hypocrisy" as she owned five ex-council houses which were managed by her husband Mark Horsham, despite campaigning against the sale of council houses at the 2015 general election; she responded to the article by stating that she had been transparent in her property dealings and had declared ownership of the properties per parliamentary rules in her register of interests. Cameron also made a formal complaint about the article to the press regulator Independent Press Standards Organisation citing inaccuracies in the article and intrusiveness of the journalist who had interviewed her at home about the story before its publication. IPSO did not uphold the complaint and reported that the article had "accurately set out the manner in which the complainant had acquired her properties" and that there was no "intrusion into her private life".
She retained her seat at the 2017 snap general election with 21,023 votes and both a reduced vote share and a majority of 3,866 votes. Following the election, Cameron was elected to be part of the Health Select Committee and the Commons Reference Group on Representation and Inclusion.
She is the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Chile, Disability, Dog Advisory Welfare, Psychology, Textile and Fashion and co-chair of the APPG on New Towns.
Cameron was re-elected at the 2019 general election with a majority 13,322.
On 29 June 2020 Lisa Cameron was the only SNP MP to vote on a motion to introduce a Bill to restrict demonstrations near abortion clinics in England. She voted against the motion, submitted on her behalf by the SNP Chief Whip.

Personal life

Lisa has been married to Mark Horsham since 2009, and they have two daughters and live in South Lanarkshire. In addition to her parliamentary activities, she continues to work as a consultant clinical psychologist for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.