Mary Fee

Mary Fee
Mary Fee
	Official portrait, 2011
Member of the Scottish Parliament ; for West Scotland; (1 of 7 Regional MSPs)
	In office; 5 May 2011 – 5 May 2021
Scottish Labour portfolios
2014–2015	Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities
2015–2016	Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Reform
2016–2017	Shadow Minister for Equalities
Personal details
Born	Mary Christina Fee; 23 March 1954 (age 70); Edinburgh, Scotland
Political party	Scottish Labour

Mary Christina Fee (born 23 March 1954) is a Scottish politician who was a

Scottish Labour Party

, she was its deputy spokesperson for a number of portfolios from 2017 to 2019.

Early life and career

Fee was born in

Leith Walk Primary and later at Broughton Secondary, both in Edinburgh.^[1]

After leaving education, she entered employment with the

British Telecom, where she remained for over ten years (1974–1984).^[1] Having married in 1977, Fee transferred within British Telecom to their Glasgow

offices.

In 1990, Fee began working for

shop steward in 1990. Mary was elected onto the Usdaw Executive in 2000 and later became a member of the STUC General Council. Fee served as a member of the Employment Tribunals

during this time as resigned from the Tribunals as of February 2011.

Political career

Fee was elected to Renfrewshire Council in the 2007 Scottish local elections, having been elected on first preference votes in the first round to the Renfrew South and Gallowhill Ward of Renfrewshire council.

For the

Labour had placed Fee as the candidate at the top of their West Scotland list and she was elected on 5 May. She stepped down as a councillor for the Renfrew South and Gallowhill Ward at the 2012 Scottish Local elections. During the fourth Scottish Parliament, Fee had various spokesperson posts for Scottish Labour. Under the leadership of Johann Lamont, Fee was Scottish Labour's Shadow Housing Minister; then under Jim Murphy, Fee was promoted to the position of, Spokesperson for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities before later taking on the position of Spokesperson for Reform, after Kezia Dugdale

was elected as the party's new leader in August 2015.

In September 2015, Fee's amendment to the

Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill

was passed after receiving cross-party support. The amendment aimed to increase support to children with a parent in prison through the introduction of Child and Family Impact Assessments when an adult with dependent children is sent to prison.

Among Fee's other notable parliament work was the important role she played in campaigning for the passage of the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 which legalised same-sex marriage in Scotland.

At the

Public Petitions Committee.^[3]

Fee established the Cross-Party Group on Families Affected by Imprisonment and was the Convener for this group.[4]

Fee nominated Anas Sarwar in the 2021 Scottish Labour leadership election.^[5]