A former oil and gas worker who managed Alex Salmond's constituency office has been appointed to replace suspended MP Michelle Thomson as the SNP's business spokeswoman.
Hannah Bardell, MP for Livingston, is the SNP's new business, innovation and skills spokeswoman, taking on the role vacated by Ms Thomson when she was suspended following the launch of a police investigation into transactions involving her property firm.
Ms Bardell's former fair work and employment portfolio has been handed to Neil Gray, a former BBC journalist and MP for Airdrie and Shotts.
Commenting on the new appointments, SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson said: "I am delighted to confirm that Hannah Bardell MP for Livingston is the SNP Westminster business, innovation and skills spokesperson.
"Congratulations to her - and also to Neil Gray MP for Airdrie and Shotts, who becomes fair work and employment spokesperson at Westminster."
Ms Thomson has denied any wrongdoing in the transactions which saw her solicitor Christopher Hales struck off following a Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal judgment that concluded he "must have been aware that there was a possibility that he was facilitating mortgage fraud".
She has expressed her desire to have SNP membership reinstated once the investigation has concluded.
Ms Bardell took her seat from Labour's Graeme Morrice, who had held it since 2010, winning from him it with a majority of more than 16,000.
She worked with the SNP as part of their 2007 central campaign team producing and presenting SNPtv online, and for the next three years managed Alex Salmond's constituency office.
Her career has also included spells outside politics, working in broadcasting and in the oil and gas sector.
Mr Gray was born and brought up in the Orkney Isles, worked as journalist for the BBC and local newspaper titles before moving to the SNP's press and research office in Holyrood.
He was employed by Scotland's Communities Secretary Alex Neil in his constituency office in 2008 and became his office manager in 2011.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel