Sandra Amelia Webster is a former national co-spokesperson of the

Scottish Socialist Party The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) is a Left-wing politics, left-wing political party campaigning for the establishment of an Scottish independence, independent Socialism, socialist Scottish Scottish republicanism, republic. The party was fou ...

(SSP). Describing herself as a socialist, feminist, and republican, she is an active campaigner for

Scottish independence Scottish independence (; ) is the idea of Scotland regaining its independence and once again becoming a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom. The term Scottish independence refers to the political movement that is campaignin ...

nuclear disarmament Nuclear disarmament is the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons. Its end state can also be a nuclear-weapons-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated. The term ''denuclearization'' is also used to describe the pro ...

, carers' rights, and autism care and support services.

Personal life

Sandra Webster grew up in the

Dryburgh Dryburgh is a village in the Borders region of Scotland, within the county of Berwickshire. It is most famous for the ruined Dryburgh Abbey. Dryburgh Abbey Hotel lies on the edge of the village. The village K6 red telephone box outside th ...

housing estate in

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

, where she lived next door to Ernie Ross, before moving to Paisley in her 20s. She has two sons with autism. In 2011, she took part in the

National Theatre of Scotland The National Theatre of Scotland, established in 2006, is the national theatre company of Scotland. The company has no theatre building of its own; instead it tours work to theatres, village halls, schools and site-specific locations, both at h ...

's Five Minute Theatre project, writing a play inspired by the experience of bringing up her two autistic sons.

Rosie Kane Rosemary "Rosie" Kane (''née'' McGarvey; born 5 June 1961) is a Scottish Socialist Party politician. She was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow Region from 2003 to 2007. Political history Introduction to politics Kane ...

, a former SSP MSP, played the role of one of the mothers in the show.

Political activism

Sandra spoke at the Radical Independence Conference in 2012 on the role of art and culture in changing society. In November 2013, Webster addressed the STUC's disabled workers' conference in

and called for the rights of disabled people to be enshrined in a written constitution in an independent Scotland. She had previously called for carers' voices to be heard during the

independence referendum An independence referendum is a type of referendum in which the residents of a territory decide whether the territory should become an Independence, independent sovereign state. An independence referendum that results in a vote for independenc ...

campaign and for carers to be "recognised for the £10 billion we contribute to the Scottish economy". Sandra Webster was re-elected as SSP co-spokesperson alongside Colin Fox at the 2014 SSP conference. She stood at a general election for the first time at the

2015 UK general election The 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 7 May 2015 to elect 650 members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, won an unexpected majority victory of ten ...

, as the official SSP candidate in

Paisley and Renfrewshire South Paisley and Renfrewshire South is a constituency of the House of Commons, located in Renfrewshire, Scotland to the southwest of Glasgow. It elects one member of Parliament at least once every five years using the first-past-the-post system o ...

. During the election campaign, she campaigned to ban

zero-hour contract A zero-hour contract is a type of employment contract in United Kingdom labour law, between an employer and an employee whereby the employer is not obliged to provide any minimum number of working hours to the employee. In 2015, employers in the ...

s, saying they "exploit workers and attack their employment rights". Explaining her decision to stand, she said the SSP "offer an alternative to the austerity that other political parties promise to deliver" and the party is "proud to represent all of the working class not just those who are in work". She said she is "possibly the only candidate" in the constituency who has been directly impacted by cuts to public services and is "standing for something real rather than it being an academic exercise". On

International Women’s Day International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated on 8 March, commemorating women's fight for equality and liberation along with the women's rights, women's rights movement. International Women's Day gives focus to issues such as gender equality, r ...

on an article published by the Scottish Socialist Party, she claims to have stood by and been most passionate about protecting vulnerable disadvantaged women, such as those with disabilities, carers and women on benefits. She was the no. 2 candidate in the West regional list for RISE - Scotland's Left Alliance at the

2016 Scottish Parliament election The 2016 Scottish parliament election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2016 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the fifth Next Scottish Parliament election, election held since the devolved parliament was established in 1999. It ...

. In 2016, she stood down as joint national spokesperson. She was a candidate for the SSP in the Paisley South East ward in Renfrewshire at the

2022 Scottish local elections The 2022 Scottish local elections were held on 5 May 2022, as part of the 2022 United Kingdom local elections. All 1,226 seats across all 32 Scottish local government, Scottish local authorities were up for election and voter turnout was 44.8%. ...

. In March 2023 she was re-elected to the SSP executive committee.

References

External links

Sandra Webster's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Webster, Sandra Living people People from Paisley, Renfrewshire Scottish Socialist Party national spokespersons Autism activists Scottish women in politics Alumni of the University of Glasgow RISE – Scotland's Left Alliance politicians Politicians from Dundee Year of birth missing (living people) British disability rights activists