Sarah Boyack
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sarah Boyack (born 16 May 1961 in Glasgow) is Labour member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh Central. She was brought up in Edinburgh, where her father was an important figure in the Labour Party.
She became a student at the University of Glasgow in 1979, and became active in the Labour Club, where she was a protege of Margaret Curran. She became chair of the Labour Club in 1981-82, and chair of the National Organisation of Labour Students in 1985-86. During her time at Glasgow University, she was involved in supporting the twinning with Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, which involved serious clashes between supporters and opponents of Zionism.
She was elected to the new Scottish Parliament in 1999, and she became Minister for the Environment in the Scottish Executive. Despite her professional qualifications as a town planner questions were widely asked about her competence for the post ("Little Miss Cockup" was one newspaper headline) and eventually she lost her position as a member of the executive when Jack McConnell became First Minister in November 2001. However she remains a member of the Scottish Parliament, and was re-elected in 2003.
In January 2007 she returned to the Scottish Executive as Deputy Minister for the Environment and Rural Development. [1]
She was married at one time, but her and her husband became separated.
In the 2003 election, she won a majority of 2,666 in her Edinburgh Central constituency over the then Liberal Democrat candidate, Andy Myles, who is now a special adviser to the Scottish Executive. This is one of the smallest majorities of any Labour MSP, and she is expected to face a strong challenge in the May 2007 election from the new Liberal Democrat candidate Siobhan Mathers and local activist Fiona Houston of the Scottish Conservative Party.
[edit] External links
- Official biography
- Sarah Boyack MSP Biography at the Labour party website
