John Swinney - House of Commons (1997 - 2001)

2001)

At the 1997 general election, he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for the Tayside North constituency, and in 1999 he was elected to represent the same area at the Scottish Parliament.

He stood down as a Westminster MP at the 2001 general election election in order to avoid splitting his time, in line with all of his colleagues who found themselves in a similar 'dual mandate' position.

His surname was the subject of some confusion during his four-year spell at Westminster. Every time he was called to speak by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Alan Haselhurst, he was referred to as 'Mr. John Sweeney', although Swinney noticeably never corrected this.