Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh
Scotland entered into a political union with England in 1707, and as a country within the United Kingdom (UK), it has since then sent representatives to the UK Parliament at Westminster in London. Currently, 59 Members of Parliament (MPs) from Scotland represent Scottish constituencies at the UK Parliament. Following the May 2015 election, the Scottish National Party (SNP) won 56 out of these 59 seats in a historic success for the nationalist and center-left party. This election propelled the SNP from having just 6 seats after the 2010 election to 56. Previously, the best performance of the SNP was in 1974 with eleven seats. The results pushed the party past the Liberal Democrats to become the third-largest group in the 650-member UK Parliament. Out of the 56 SNP seats, 36 (64.3%) are held by men and 20 (35.7%) are held by women. Women representation within the SNP MPs is higher than that of the UK Parliament, which includes 191 women MPs in total (29.4%). Among the three major parties of the parliament, the Labour Party is the one with the highest female representation in its MPs ranks with 99 women MPs out of 229 representatives (43.2%). Currently, the SNP’s leader Nicola Sturgeon is the First Minister of Scotland. She is the first woman to hold both positions. As one of the 20 newly elected women SNP MPs to the UK parliament, iKNOW Politics interviewed Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, the party's Spokesperson on Trade and Investment as well as the National Women's and Equalities Officer for the SNP. Click below to watch the interview.
Scotland entered into a political union with England in 1707, and as a country within the United Kingdom (UK), it has since then sent representatives to the UK Parliament at Westminster in London. Currently, 59 Members of Parliament (MPs) from Scotland represent Scottish constituencies at the UK Parliament. Following the May 2015 election, the Scottish National Party (SNP) won 56 out of these 59 seats in a historic success for the nationalist and center-left party. This election propelled the SNP from having just 6 seats after the 2010 election to 56. Previously, the best performance of the SNP was in 1974 with eleven seats. The results pushed the party past the Liberal Democrats to become the third-largest group in the 650-member UK Parliament. Out of the 56 SNP seats, 36 (64.3%) are held by men and 20 (35.7%) are held by women. Women representation within the SNP MPs is higher than that of the UK Parliament, which includes 191 women MPs in total (29.4%). Among the three major parties of the parliament, the Labour Party is the one with the highest female representation in its MPs ranks with 99 women MPs out of 229 representatives (43.2%). Currently, the SNP’s leader Nicola Sturgeon is the First Minister of Scotland. She is the first woman to hold both positions. As one of the 20 newly elected women SNP MPs to the UK parliament, iKNOW Politics interviewed Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, the party's Spokesperson on Trade and Investment as well as the National Women's and Equalities Officer for the SNP. Click below to watch the interview.