Anne McLaughlin lives in Dennistoun in the heart of the Glasgow North East constituency where she was the MP from 2015 to 2017 and 2019 to 2024.

Full statement

Anne has gained a reputation for getting on the wrong side of Tory Government Ministers by speaking truth to them. She is courteous but fearless in her approach. She is known for her tenacity and for never accepting no for an answer if she believes an injustice has been done. In 2017 when she lost her seat by some 300 votes, she carried on campaigning for justice for hundreds of constituents affected by Green Deal Mis-selling, a campaign she has now had great success with but which is not yet over.Anne’s approach is thorough. She takes an issue that affects her constituents (eg PrePayment Meters, Pension Credit, Food Poverty, The Hostile Environment) and tackles it on 3 fronts - fighting for policy change at Westminster, supporting individual constituents at home and feeding into the ongoing work to develop the best possible policies for an Independent Scotland.Take the issue of Pension Credit. In her constituency alone an approximate £7.5 million goes unclaimed by local pensioners every year. Anne held debates in Westminster and set up the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pension Credit to push the government on this. Meantime she held open days at her office when her team assisted hundreds of local pensioners to apply for their legal entitlement. And she has spoken at SNP Conference about the need to ensure Scotland’s older people are sufficiently supported after Independence. The result of her local campaigning and open days is that Glasgow North East now has one of the highest uptakes of Pension Credit in the UK.At different times she has been the SNP’s Spokesperson on Justice, Immigration, International Development and on Women and Equalities at Westminster.Anne is from a working class background, remains very close to her roots and is a member of SNP Socialists. She is passionate about Independence, not as an end in itself but as something that can transform Scotland. Having been actively campaigning for Independence all of her life, she also led the local Yes team to a 57% yes vote in 2014, the second highest in Scotland.