Annabelle Ewing

Annabelle Janet Ewing

Ewing was born on 20 August 1960 to Winnifred Margaret Ewing (née Woodburn) and Stewart Martin Ewing. Her mother was a prominent former Scottish politician. She attended Craigholme School for Girls in Glasgow and the University of Glasgow, where she graduated with a law degree.^[1]

Before becoming an MP, Ewing was a

She lives in Perthshire. Her mother was former SNP President, Winnie Ewing, who in the past was a member of three different parliaments — Westminster, the Scottish Parliament and the European Parliament. Her brother is MSP Fergus Ewing, and her sister-in-law was the late Margaret Ewing, who had been an MSP and an MP.^[3] Her late father, Stewart Ewing was elected as an SNP district councillor for the Summerston Ward in Glasgow 1977, when he gained it from Dick Dynes, then-leader of the Labour Group on Glasgow District Council, a result described at the time by The Glasgow Herald as "an absolute sensation".^[4]

Ewing is a member of Shelter and Amnesty International. She has been involved in a number of Parliamentary campaigns, including fighting for the rights of people with Hepatitis C, and working to gain a public enquiry into the events at Princess Royal Barracks, Deepcut, where James Collinson, a constituent, died on 23 March 2002.^[5][6]

Ewing was first selected as a SNP candidate for the UK Parliament to contest a by-election for Hamilton South in 1999, the constituency where her mother had won a famous by-election victory in 1967.^[7] Labour had a comfortable majority at the 1997 election and despite a swing of 16% to the SNP in 1999, Labour's Bill Tynan won the seat.^[8]

In 2001, Ewing stood for the UK Parliament again, this time in Perth, where

She sought to become SNP candidate for Moray in the 27 April 2006 Scottish Parliament by-election to succeed her late sister-in-law, Margaret Ewing. She was defeated by North East Scotland MSP Richard Lochhead^[11] who went on to win the seat in the by-election.

She was later selected to contest the Falkirk East seat in the 2007 election on behalf of the SNP as a replacement for the previously selected candidate, the late Douglas Henderson. On 3 May 2007 she achieved a 9% swing from Labour to the SNP in Falkirk East, however this was not enough to displace the incumbent Cathy Peattie.

She contested Ochil and South Perthshire for a second time at the 2010 election, failing again to take it from Gordon Banks, this time on an increased (4%) swing away from the SNP to Labour. At the 2011 election Ewing was elected to the Scottish Parliament as an additional member for the Mid Scotland and Fife region.

She is famed due to an incident that occurred on 16 December 2004, whereby the Deputy Speaker removed her from the House as she refused to apologise for calling the then Defence Secretary

After being re-elected in the 2021 election, Ewing was elected as one of the two Deputy Presiding Officers of the Scottish Parliament.^[15] On 20 April 2023, after a particularly robust intervention from Fergus Ewing on the subject of gas extraction, she had to remind him officially about treating fellow members with respect. First Minister Humza Yousaf then quipped that he suspected it was not the first time she had had to tell her brother off.^[16]

On 2 March 2025, she announced she would stand down at the

• Scottish Parliament profiles of MSPs: Annabelle Ewing
• profile at Scottish government website
• Official website
• Guardian
• They Work For You
• The Public Whip