This is a list of independent MSPs. It includes all

members 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 ...

(MSPs) who sat as

independent politician An independent politician or non-affiliated politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or Bureaucracy, bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicia ...

s in 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'. ...

. , only three people have ever been elected to the

as independent candidates.

Dennis Canavan Dennis Andrew Canavan (born 8 August 1942) is a Scottish politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Falkirk West (UK Parliament constituency), Falkirk West from 1974 to 2000 (known as West Stirlingshire (UK Parliament constituency), West S ...

and

Jean Turner Jean McGivern Turner (born 23 December 1939) is a Scottish medical doctor and former independent (politician), Independent politician. She was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Strathkelvin and Bearsden (Scottish Parliament con ...

were independents throughout their time in the Parliament.

Margo MacDonald Margo Symington MacDonald (''née'' Aitken; 19 April 1943 – 4 April 2014) was a Scottish politician, teacher and broadcaster. She was the Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow Govan from 1973 to 1974 and was D ...

was elected in 1999 as a

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) candidate, but sat as an independent after her expulsion in early 2003, and was re-elected three times as an independent candidate. The other nine MSPs who sat as independents did so after leaving the party for which they had been elected. Some resigned from their party, and others were suspended or expelled. Margo MacDonald was the only former party MSP to win re-election as an independent, but

John Finnie John Bradford Finnie (born 31 December 1956) is a Scottish Greens politician. He was the Green Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Highlands and Islands region from 2016 up until 2021, having previously sat as a Scottish National P ...

was re-elected in 2016 as a

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 ...

candidate.

List of MSPs

Notes

References

External links

Current and previous Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs)
on the Scottish Parliament website {{Lists of Members of the Scottish Parliament

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

*List