Neil Charles Gray (born 16 March 1986) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

politician serving as

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since 2024. A member of the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

(SNP), he has been the

Member of the Scottish Parliament Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; ; ) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. Electoral system The additional member system produces a form of proportional representation, where ...

(MSP) for Airdrie & Shotts since

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

. Gray previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the equivalent Westminster seat from 2015 to 2021. He served as Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy from 2023 to 2024, and

Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development The Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development was a junior ministerial post in the Scottish Government. As a result, the minister did not attend the Scottish Government#Cabinet, Scottish Cabinet.Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

, and was educated at Kirkwall Grammar School. He graduated from the

University of Stirling The University of Stirling (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals; ) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by a royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built within the walled Airth ...

in 2008 with a first-class

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

Honours degree Honours degree has various meanings in the context of different degrees and education systems. Most commonly it refers to a variant of the undergraduate bachelor's degree containing a larger volume of material or a higher standard of study, ...

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

and

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

. Following his graduation, Gray was employed as a producer and reporter with BBC Radio Orkney from 2003 until 2008.

Political career

Early years

Gray worked as a press and research intern for the SNP parliamentary group at the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( ; ) is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. It is located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of Edinburgh, and is frequently referred to by the metonym 'Holyrood'. ...

. Gray was also employed by Alex Neil from 2008, being appointed as constituency office manager in 2011. The selection process for the Airdrie SNP candidacy, which Neil Gray ultimately won, was not without controversy. Former diplomat

Craig Murray Craig John Murray (born 17 October 1958) is a Scottish author, human rights campaigner, journalist, and former diplomat. While he was the British ambassador to Uzbekistan (2002–2004), he exposed the violations of human rights in that count ...

was nominated as a potential candidate at an Airdrie Branch meeting but did not make the final list as he failed SNP candidate vetting, whereupon he commented that "I think in both Airdrie & Shotts and in Falkirk it's evident who the party hierarchy wants to be the candidate." Former Policeman and SNP Councillor Alan Beveridge resigned from the party in February 2015 after Neil Gray was selected, claiming that there was a "climate of fear, intimidation and false allegations within the party" which were highlighted in the selection process.

Westminster; 2015–2021

Official portrait of Neil Gray MP crop 2

In September 2016, Gray as a member of the new

Joint Committee on the Palace of Westminster The Joint Committee on the Palace of Westminster was a joint committee (United Kingdom), Joint Select Committee appointed to assess the options contained within an independent assessment report on a proposed major restoration and renewal of the Pa ...

proposed "the Joint Committee declines to consider a draft Report until it has given full consideration to the possibility of constructing a permanent new Parliamentary building, while finding an alternative future use for the Palace of Westminster; notes that this option was included in the Pre-Feasibility Study and Preliminary Strategic Business Case published in October 2012 but was rejected by the House of Commons Commission and the House of Lords House Committee at that stage; and resolves to apply the same rigorous scrutiny to the possible construction of a new Parliamentary building as it has applied to the other options for delivering the Restoration and Renewal Programme, before making a recommendation about the best option for carrying out the works"; the committee voted 11–1 against this proposal. In 2017, he held Airdrie and Shotts with a significantly reduced majority of 195 votes, although he did increase that in the 2019 general election to a stronger majority of 5,000 votes over the second-placed Labour candidate. Gray has campaigned extensively in support of

Roadchef Roadchef Motorways Limited is a company which operates 21 motorway service areas in the United Kingdom. History Roadchef was founded in July 1973 as a joint venture between Lindley Catering Investments and Galleon World Travel, with the first ...

employees, and former employees, who have waited over 20 years for the repayment of money wrongly appropriated by former executive Tim Ingram Hill. On 8 January 2020, he questioned the Prime Minister on the issue, receiving an assurance that the Chancellor would "discuss" the matter with him. In November 2020, Gray announced that he would be resigning as an MP in order to try and win a seat in the

at the

2021 Scottish Parliament election The 2021 Scottish Parliament election took place on 6 May 2021 under the provisions of the Scotland Act 1998. It was the sixth Scottish Parliament election since the parliament was re-established in 1999. 129 Member of the Scottish Parliament, ...

. On 23 March 2021, he made his final speech in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

, and was appointed Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead a day later. He is the only SNP member to have held that notional office. North Lanarkshire Council calculated that his decision to resign as an MP and trigger a by-election cost taxpayers £175,000.

Holyrood; 2021-present

On 7 May 2021, Gray was elected as the MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, finishing ahead of former

Scottish Labour Scottish Labour (), is the part of the UK Labour Party (UK), Labour Party active in Scotland. Ideologically social democratic and Unionism in the United Kingdom, unionist, it holds 23 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 37 of 57 Sco ...

leader,

Richard Leonard Richard Leonard (born January 1962) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2017 to 2021. He has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), as one of the additional members for the Central Scotland ...

. Following his election, Gray said, as deputy convener of the SNP's Social Justice and Fairness Commission, that a couple with two children in an independent Scotland could be guaranteed a minimum income of £37,000 annually by the state. He admitted that he had not costed the proposal.

Ministerial career

In a ministerial reshuffle on 24 January 2022, Gray was appointed as

Humza Yousaf Humza Haroon Yousaf (; born 7 April 1985) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from March 2023 to May 2024. He served under his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon as Scottish ...

from 29 March 2023 to 8 February 2024. He was appointed

on 8 February, succeeding Michael Matheson, who had resigned amid an expenses scandal, and was retained in that role by

John Swinney John Ramsay Swinney (born 13 April 1964) is a Scottish politician who has served as First Minister of Scotland, first minister of Scotland since 2024. Swinney has served as Leader of the Scottish National Party, leader of the Scottish National ...

. In November 2024, Gray faced criticism after it was revealed that he had used an official ministerial car to be chauffeured to watch four

Aberdeen F.C. Aberdeen Football Club is a Scottish professional Association football, football club based in Aberdeen, Scotland. They compete in the and have List of unrelegated association football clubs, never been relegated from the top division of th ...

football matches. Gray, an acknowledged fan of Aberdeen F.C., registered the events as official government visits. In a statement to the Scottish Parliament, Gray also admitted to using an official car to attend five Scotland matches, and that he had been accompanied by a family member or guest to six of the matches. Gray said all the engagements were "official ministerial business" and that summaries were available for all of the meetings, but apologised for not attending "a wider range of games", and for creating the impression that he was acting "more as a fan and less as a minister". The

Scottish Conservatives The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party (), known as Scottish Tories, is part of the UK Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party active in Scotland. It currently holds 5 of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Ki ...

accused Gray of having a "jolly to watch the football" at the expense of the taxpayer and called for the costs to be refunded in full, while the

Scottish Greens The Scottish Greens (also known as the Scottish Green Party; ) are a green political party in Scotland. The party has 7 MSPs of 129 in the Scottish Parliament, the party holds 35 of the 1226 councillors at Scottish local Government level. The ...

criticised him for not using public transport. First Minister John Swinney told journalists that he would not refer Gray for investigation under the ministerial code, and that he considered the matter "closed". In January 2025, a Freedom of Information request revealed that no note was produced of the Gray's meeting at the 2023 League Cup final at Hampden Park. Gray subsequently apologised to the Scottish Parliament for making a misleading statement. John Swinney re-iterated his support for Gray and insisted that the Health Secretary had made an "inadvertent error". In June 2025, it was revealed that in 2024 Gray had also used his official ministerial car to be chauffeured to a pub before an Aberdeen F.C. match. The journeys were logged in the official ministerial register as trips to and from a "personal address, Aberdeen". These entries were amended after an investigation by the ''Scottish Daily Mail'' showed that no evidence of such an address could be found. Officials acknowledged that Gray had no home address in Aberdeen; the Scottish Government insisted there had been an "administration error", and the First Minister John Swinney said, "The ministerial car was used in accordance with the rules that have been set out within the guidance on this occasion. And those rules that are clearly and publicly advertised have been followed on this occasion."

Personal life

Outside politics Gray was formerly a keen athlete, representing Scotland in the 400 m, until a serious knee injury ended his career in athletics. Neil has three daughters and one son with his wife, Karlie.

Notes

References

External links

* *
SNP profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Neil 1986 births Living people Ministers of the Scottish Government People educated at Kirkwall Grammar School Alumni of the University of Stirling BBC newsreaders and journalists Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies People from Kirkwall Scottish journalists Scottish National Party MPs UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–2024 Scottish National Party MSPs Members of the Scottish Parliament 2021–2026 People associated with North Lanarkshire