John Swinney

John Swinney

John Ramsey Swinney (born 13 April 1964) is the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth in the Scottish Government and the Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Perthshire North, having previously represented North Tayside (1999–2011). Perthshire North takes in Highland and East Perthshire, the Carse of Gowrie and the Perth City Centre ward of Perth and Kinross Council.

He joined the Scottish National Party in 1979 at the age of 15 and has held a number of posts within the party at local and national level, including National Secretary, Vice Convener for Publicity and Deputy Leader. In 2000, Swinney was elected Leader (or National Convenor) of the SNP, becoming Leader of the Opposition in the Scottish Parliament. He stood down as SNP leader in 2004 and became Convener of the Scottish Parliament's European and External Relations Committee.

Swinney was previously a Member of Parliament (MP) for Tayside North in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, before taking the same seat in the Scottish Parliament's 1999, 2003 and 2007 elections. In 2007 he achieved the largest constituency vote for any candidate in Scotland. At the election in May 2011, he was re-elected with 18,219 votes, and a majority of 10,353. Swinney's vote was the second highest in Scotland, second only to First Minister, Alex Salmond MSP.

Born in Edinburgh, Swinney was educated at Forrester High School and the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 1986 as a Master of Arts with Honours in Politics. Prior to his election to the UK Parliament in 1997, Swinney was employed as Strategic Planning Principal with Scottish Amicable and was a business and economic development consultant for five years. Swinney is married and has three children.