Jeremy Purvis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jeremy Purvis (born 15 January 1974) is a Scottish Liberal Democrat politician, and has been Member of the Scottish Parliament for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale since 2003 and was re-elected in 2007. He is the Scottish Liberal Democrats' Justice Spokesperson.

He was born in Berwick-upon-Tweed England, where he later attended school there. Purvis has asked for the border to be moved twenty miles south (i.e. south of the Tweed), and to include Berwick borough council, rather than just the town:

"There’s a strong feeling that Berwick should be in Scotland, Until recently, I had a gran in Berwick and another in Kelso, and they could see that there were better public services in Scotland. Berwick as a borough council is going to be abolished and it would then be run from Morpeth, more than 30 miles away."^[1].

He studied Politics and Modern History at university in London, graduating in 1996. While at university he worked for the ELDR (Liberal) Group in the European Parliament and Liberal International. On graduating, Jeremy worked full time for Sir David Steel in the House of Commons and then ran his office in the House of Lords. In 1998 he moved to Edinburgh to work for a parliamentary affairs company and in 2001 he established, with a fellow director, his own strategic communications consultancy, advising clients on communications.

He was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2003 aged 29, making him the youngest constituency MSP at the time. He was the Scottish Liberal Democrat Finance Spokesman and then moved on to become Justice and Home Affairs spokesman. He was re-elected in 2007 following a close campaign, with some of the media stating that the Scottish National Party candidate Christine Grahame would defeat him. Ultimately, both parties greatly increased their vote shares at the expense of the Conservatives and Labour. Purvis's margin declined by 0.2 percentage points but increased by 65 votes; this discrepancy was due to a vast increase in turnout in the 2007 election.

He currently lives in Galashiels.

Scottish Parliament
Preceded by Ian Jenkins	Member of the Scottish Parliament for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale 2003 – present	Incumbent

v • d • e      Members of the Scottish Parliament in the South of Scotland region Elected in the 2007 election Labour (5 seats), SNP (5 seats), Conservative (4 seats), Lib Dems (2 seats) Constituency MSPs John Scott (Con, Ayr) • Cathy Jamieson (Lab, Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) • Karen Gillon (Lab, Clydesdale) • Irene Oldfather (Lab, Cunninghame South) • Elaine Murray (Lab, Dumfries) • Iain Gray (Lab, East Lothian) • Alex Fergusson (Presiding Officer, Galloway and Upper Nithsdale) • John Lamont (Con, Roxburgh and Berwickshire) • Jeremy Purvis (Lib Dem, Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) Additional Members Derek Brownlee (Con) • Aileen Campbell (SNP) • Christine Grahame (SNP) • Jim Hume (Lib Dem) • Adam Ingram (SNP) • Alasdair Morgan (SNP) • Mike Russell (SNP)

v • d • e Scottish Liberal Democrat MSPs Elected in the 2007 election Robert Brown • Ross Finnie • Jim Hume • Hugh O'Donnell • Liam McArthur • Alison McInnes • John Farquhar Munro • Mike Pringle • Jeremy Purvis • Mike Rumbles • Tavish Scott • Iain Smith • Margaret Smith • Nicol Stephen • Jamie Stone • Jim Tolson

[edit] References

1. ^ The Sunday Post, Feb 10, 2008, Scots plan to capture 20 miles of England

[edit] External links

• Jeremy Purvis MSP official site
• Jeremy Purvis MSP official biography at the Scottish Parliament website
• Jeremy Purvis MSP profile at the site of Scottish Liberal Democrats