Mike Weir (politician)

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Michael Weir MP
Member of Parliament for Angus
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 June 2001
Preceded by	Andrew Welsh
Majority	3,282 (8.6%)
Personal details
Born	(1957-03-24) 24 March 1957 Arbroath, Angus, Scotland
Nationality	Scottish
Political party	Scottish National Party
Relations	Married
Children	Two daughters
Alma mater	University of Aberdeen
Profession	Solicitor
Website	Official website

Michael Fraser Weir (born 24 March 1957) is the Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Angus in Scotland. He is the SNP's Westminster spokesperson for trade, industry, business, energy and climate change.^[1] He was previously a councillor and Convenor of the General Purposes Committee of Angus District Council. Prior to his election in 2001, Mike was a solicitor and Partner for J&DG Shiell in Brechin.

Background

He was born in Arbroath and educated at Arbroath High School and Aberdeen University, from where he graduated LLB in 1979. Whilst at university Mike Weir served as President of the Aberdeen University Scottish Nationalist Association and was a member of the Students Representative Council. He has also served as a member of the national executive of the Young Scottish Nationalists and from 1984 to 1988 he served as a councillor on Angus District Council, where he was Convenor of General Purposes. He worked as a solicitor in Montrose and Kirkcaldy before settling in Brechin where he was a partner (latterly senior partner) in the firm of J&DG Shiell. He is married with two daughters.

House of Commons

Mike Weir was first elected to Parliament in 2001 and in his first term was the SNP Spokesperson on Trade and Industry and Work and Pensions, as well as being a member of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee (2001–05). In 2005, Weir held the new seat of Angus which had been substantially changed in the boundary changes for that election. Although he went into the election with a notional majority of only 532 he achieved a majority of 1601 over the Conservatives. Since 2005 Mike Weir has been the SNP Westminster Spokesperson on Business and Enterprise (which includes energy) and the Environment. He has been an outspoken opponent of nuclear power and has pursued a relentless campaign on the future of the Post Office network. Mike Weir sat on the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee (2005–09) and was a member of the Chairmen's Panel/Panel of Chairs from (2005–10). He served on the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee from 2009-10.

Key Issues

Weir has championed issues relating to energy including, the scrapping of pre-payment heater meters. He believes that people should not have to get into debt simply in order to have sufficient heating in their homes and help for off gas grin energy consumers, including a long campaign for pensioners who are off the grid to receive winter heating allowance earlier to take advantage of lower prices. He has fought to maintain jobs in his constituency. When the Transport Minister wanted to close two driving centres in Arbroath and Forfar, he fought to have the centres remain open. He has championed local employers, such as GE Oil and Gas and GSK in Montrose.

Weir is also in strong opposition of privatising the Royal Mail. He believes that it will be incredibly damaging to the local economy and that it won’t be as reliable for Scotland’s more rural communities.

References

↑ "Your representatives - Mike Weir". BBC News. Retrieved 2011-10-10.

External links

Profile

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Andrew Welsh	Member of Parliament for Angus 2001–present	Incumbent

v t e Scottish National Party MPs

Elected in the 2010 election	Stewart Hosie Angus MacNeil Angus Robertson Mike Weir Eilidh Whiteford Peter Wishart

Former SNP MPs

v t e Scottish National Party (SNP)

Leaders	MacEwan Gibb Power Young Watson McIntyre Halliday Donaldson Wolfe Wilson Swinney Salmond

Deputy Leaders	Wolfe Leslie Henderson Wilson MacDonald Henderson Fairlie Ewing Salmond Morgan Sillars Macartney Swinney Cunningham Sturgeon

Presidents	Graham Muirhead Gibson McIntyre Wolfe Stewart Ewing Hudghton

Members of the Scottish Parliament	Adam Adamson Allan Allard Beattie Biagi Brodie Brown Burgess A Campbell R Campbell Coffey Constance Crawford Cunningham Dey Don Doris Dornan Eadie A Ewing F Ewing Fabiani Finnie FitzPatrick K Gibson R Gibson Grahame Hepburn Hyslop Ingram Keir Kidd Lochhead Lyle MacAskill A MacDonald G MacDonald Mackay MacKenzie Mason Matheson Maxwell McAlpine M McDonald McKelvie A McLeod F McLeod McMillan Neil Paterson Robertson Robison Russell Salmond Stevenson Stewart Sturgeon Swinney Thompson Torrance Urquhart Watt Wheelhouse White Wilson Yousaf

Members of the UK Parliament	Hosie MacNeil Robertson Weir Whiteford Wishart

Members of the European Parliament	Hudghton Smith

Persondata
Name	Weir, Michael
Alternative names
Short description	British politician
Date of birth	24 March 1957
Place of birth	Arbroath
Date of death
Place of death

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