Dave Thompson (Scottish politician)

Dave Thompson
Convener of the Scottish Parliament Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee
In office 14 June 2011 – 7 November 2013
Preceded by	Gil Paterson
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch
In office 5 May 2011 – 23 March 2016
Preceded by	John Farquhar Munro (as member for Ross, Skye and Inverness West
Majority	4995
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Highlands and Islands
In office 3 May 2007 – 22 March 2011
Personal details
Born	20 September 1949 Lossiemouth
Political party	Scottish National Party

Dave Thompson (born 20 September 1949) is a Scottish politician. He was a Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) 2007−2016. He was first elected in 2007 as a Highlands and Islands, then elected for the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch constituency in the 2011 election.

Early life

Thompson was born in Lossiemouth, Scotland.

Political career

In 2007, Thompson was elected from the regional list as a MSP for the Highlands and Islands.^[1] Thompson received some media attention in the aftermath of the 2007 election because he pointed out to the returning officer that the number of additional members for each party had been wrongly calculated.^[2] The initial calculation would have given Labour four additional seats and the SNP none, which would have resulted in Labour gaining a plurality and winning the election. After Thompson challenged this calculation and the figures were correctly calculated, Labour were allocated three seats and the SNP two. This resulted in the SNP gaining a plurality of one seat and enabled them to form the Scottish Government.

In 2011 Thompson was elected for the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch constituency.^[3]

In August 2011, before the main debate on equal marriage in Scotland, Thompson along with two other MSPs- Richard Lyle and Bill Walker had given their support to a motion proposed by John Mason; the motion had included a statement of support for the view that no person or organisation should be forced to be involved or to approve of same-sex marriage,^[4] however the motion fell on 5 December 2011.^[5]

References

1. "MSPs: Previous MSPs: Session3: Thompson, Dave". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
2. Grandfather was SNP election hero BBC News, 5 May 2007
3. "MSPs: Previous MSPs: Session4: Thompson, Dave". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
4. "Row within SNP over John Mason's gay marriage motion". BBC News. 7 August 2011.
5. "Motions, Questions and Answers Search: motion S4M-00586: John Mason, Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 03/08/2011". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 20 March 2015.