Màiri Louise McAllan (born 14 February 1993) 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 Cabinet Secretary for Housing since 2025. She has previously served as

Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy The Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy is a Scottish Government Cabinet position with responsibility for the Net Zero and energy (where not reserved) policy of Scotland. The incumbent is Gillian Martin who has held the brief since ...

from 2024 to 2025, Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition from 2023 to 2024, and Minister for Environment, Biodiversity and Land Reform from 2021 to 2023. 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), she 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 Clydesdale 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 ...

. McAllan is a former corporate

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

, who also served as a special advisor to

First Minister A first minister is any of a variety of leaders of government cabinets. The term literally has the same meaning as "prime minister" but is typically chosen to distinguish the office-holder from a superior prime minister. Currently the title of ' ...

Nicola Sturgeon Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is a Scottish politician who served as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) from 2014 to 2023. She has served as a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) sin ...

prior to her election to the Scottish Parliament.

Early life

McAllan grew up and was educated in

Biggar, South Lanarkshire Biggar ( ) is a town, parish and former burgh in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, in the Southern Uplands near the River Clyde on the A702. The closest neighbouring towns are Lanark, Peebles and Carluke. History Biggar occupies a key location close ...

, then studied Scots law at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

, also spending time at the

University of Ghent Ghent University (, abbreviated as UGent) is a Public university, public research university located in Ghent, in the East Flanders province of Belgium. Located in Flanders, Ghent University is the second largest Belgian university, consisting o ...

in Belgium. Her father Ian is also a politician who has served as a local councillor for

South Lanarkshire South Lanarkshire (; ) is one of 32 unitary authorities of Scotland. It borders the south-east of the Glasgow City council area and contains some of Greater Glasgow's suburban towns, as well as many rural towns and villages. It also shares bor ...

's Clydesdale East ward (which covers Biggar) since

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

. Before entering politics, McAllan co-founded human rights organisation RebLaw Scotland, which aims to use the law as a tool in the fight for social justice and held its first conference in 2017, worked as a corporate lawyer specialising in energy and natural resources and was a voluntary director of East Ayrshire's Women's Aid.

Political career

She stood unsuccessfully in Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale at the

2017 United Kingdom general election The 2017 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 8 June 2017, two years after the 2015 United Kingdom general election, previous general election in 2015; it was the first since 1992 United Kingdom general election, 1992 to be held ...

, where she came second to

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

incumbent

David Mundell David Gordon Mundell, (born 27 May 1962) is a Scottish Conservative Party politician and solicitor who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale since 2005. He previously served as Secretary of Stat ...

. McAllan served as a special advisor in the Scottish Government on environmental matters. First to then Environment Secretary

Roseanna Cunningham Roseanna Cunningham (born 27 July 1951) is a retired Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who served as Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform from 2016 to 2021. She was previously Cabinet Secretary for Fair Wor ...

and then to then First Minister

. On 6 May 2021 she was elected as

(MSP) for Clydesdale. On 19 May 2021, McAllan was appointed to the new government as Minister for Environment, Biodiversity and Land Reform. In March 2023, McAllan was promoted to the cabinet under new First Minister

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 ...

as Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Just Transition. In June this post was renamed Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition. In December 2023 she controversially defended her government's record by stating "more often than not world leaders are approaching the

Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in ...

" asking how they had "managed to lead the way so successfully on a number of fronts". In a subsequent Freedom of Information request made by the

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

, the government were unable to provide the names of the world leaders as it did not retain such data. Following the return of

Fiona Hyslop Fiona Jane Hyslop (born 1 August 1964) is a Scotland, Scottish politician who has served as Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Net Zero and Just Transition, Cabinet Secretary for Transport since 2024. Hyslop has served in various offices under fir ...

to government in February 2024, McAllan became the Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Net Zero and Energy. Hyslop took on the transport brief while McAllan gained the economy and energy brief from

Neil Gray Neil Charles Gray (born 16 March 1986) is a Scottish politician serving as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care since 2024. A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), he has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Airdr ...

. During her time in this role, McAllan was responsible for scrapping the Scottish Government's target of 75% emission reduction by 2030, instead reverting to the UK target of 2045. In May 2024,

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 ...

succeeded Yousaf as First Minister and McAllan's role was renamed

, with Kate Forbes gaining the economy brief. Between July 2024 and June 2025,

Gillian Martin Gillian Anne Martin is a Scottish politician who has served as Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy since June 2025. She previously served as Minister for Climate Action between 2023 and 2025, and as Acting Cabinet Secretary for N ...

served as Acting Cabinet Secretary in this role while McAllan was on maternity leave. In June 2025, McAllan returned from maternity leave and was appointed to the newly created position of Cabinet Secretary for Housing.

Personal life

In February 2024, she and her husband Iain announced that she is pregnant with her first child. She took maternity leave in the summer. She returned to her role as a government minister in June 2025.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McAllan, Màiri Living people Scottish National Party MSPs Ministers of the Scottish Government Members of the Scottish Parliament 2021–2026 Female members of the Scottish Parliament Scottish expatriates in Belgium Scottish National Party parliamentary candidates People from Biggar, South Lanarkshire Alumni of the University of Glasgow Politicians from South Lanarkshire Scottish solicitors Women members of the Scottish Government 1993 births