Stephen Patrick Gethins (born 28 March 1976) is 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)

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

and academic serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry since the 2024 general election. He previously served as the MP for North East Fife from

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, until he lost the seat at the 2019 general election to

Wendy Chamberlain Wendy Anne Chamberlain (born 20 December 1976) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Fife since 2019. She has served as Deputy Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats since 2021. Chamberlain is t ...

of the Liberal Democrats. Subsequently, he was appointed Professor of Practice in International Relations at the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

Background and education

Gethins was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

and brought up in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

. He was educated at Perth Academy. He graduated with a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

degree from the University of Dundee in 1998, specialising in

public international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

. He also holds a Master of Research from the

University of Kent The University of Kent (formerly the University of Kent at Canterbury, abbreviated as UKC) is a Collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom. The university was granted its roya ...

. He worked in the NGO Sector specialising in peace-building, arms control and democracy in the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

and the

Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

regions. He worked with NGO Links in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...

focusing on the conflicts surrounding the breakaway entities in the South Caucasus such as

South Ossetia South Ossetia, officially the Republic of South Ossetia or the State of Alania, is a landlocked country in the South Caucasus with International recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, partial diplomatic recognition. It has an offici ...

Abkhazia Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a List of states with limited recognition, partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It cover ...

and

Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh (, ; ) is a region in Azerbaijan, covering the southeastern stretch of the Lesser Caucasus mountain range. Part of the greater region of Karabakh, it spans the area between Lower Karabakh and Syunik Province, Syunik. Its ter ...

. He also worked for

Saferworld Saferworld is an international non-governmental organisation with conflict prevention and peacebuilding programmes in over 20 countries and territories in the Horn of Africa, the African Great Lakes, African Great Lakes region, Asia, the Middle ...

on arms control, peace-building and democratisation in the former

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and Balkans.

Political career

Gethins was appointed a Special Adviser to Scotland's

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 ' ...

, Alex Salmond, advising on European and International Affairs as well as Rural Affairs, Energy and Climate Change and subsequently advised

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 ...

. He was a Political Advisor with the

Committee of the Regions The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is the European Union's (EU) assembly of local and regional representatives that provides sub-national authorities (i.e. regions, counties, provinces, municipalities and cities) with a direct voice w ...

in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, a position which saw him working with local authorities from across Europe. He also worked at Scotland Europa. He was on the list of SNP candidates for the six Scottish seats in the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 22 and 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties field ...

, although only the first two SNP candidates were elected.

UK Parliament

In February 2015, he was selected by the local party members to contest the 2015 general election at the North East Fife constituency. He won 18,523 votes (a 40.9% share of the vote) and received a majority of 4,344 votes over the Liberal Democrat candidate, Tim Brett, who was selected after the retirement of the seat's long-term Lib Dem MP and former party leader, Sir Ming Campbell. In May 2015, the SNP made him their Spokesperson on Europe at Westminster. In July he was appointed as a member of the House of Commons

Foreign Affairs Select Committee The Foreign Affairs Select Committee is one of many select committees of the British House of Commons, which scrutinises the expenditure, administration and policy of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office The Foreign, Commonwea ...

. At the 2017 general election, Gethins was narrowly re-elected as the MP for North East Fife. He received 13,743 votes, giving him a very slim majority of just two votes over the Liberal Democrats; the joint-third smallest majority in British political history. This was confirmed after three re-counts before being declared. After the election, Gethins was promoted to the SNP Westminster

frontbench team of Ian Blackford The Frontbench Team of Ian Blackford was the team of Scottish National Party Spokespersons in the United Kingdom House of Commons, House of Commons from 2017 to 2022. Ian Blackford, who was elected Leader of the Scottish National Party's parliam ...

as the party's Spokesperson for International Affairs and Europe. Despite increasing his share of the vote, he lost his seat at the 2019 general election to the Liberal Democrat candidate,

who won by a majority of 1,316 votes. This made him the only SNP MP to lose their seat at the general election that year.

After Westminster

After losing his Westminster seat Gethins was appointed Professor of Practice in International Relations at the

. In July 2020, Gethins was announced as the chair of ‘eu+me’- a campaign for a close relationship between Scotland and the EU after Brexit.

Return to Westminster

In 2023 he was named the SNP prospective parliamentary candidate for the new constituency of Arbroath and Broughty Ferry at the 2024 general election. Gethins narrowly won the seat with a majority of 1.9%.

References

External links

profile
at University of St Andrews
Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gethins, Stephen 1976 births 21st-century Scottish politicians Alumni of the University of Dundee Alumni of the University of Kent Academics of the University of St Andrews Living people Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Fife constituencies People educated at Perth Academy People from Perth, Scotland Scottish National Party MPs Scottish special advisers UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2024–present Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Dundee constituencies