Richard Arkless
Scottish politician
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Richard Lambert Thomas Arkless (born 7 July 1975) is a Scottish National Party politician, who was elected as MP for Dumfries and Galloway at the 2015 UK general election.[1][2] He lost his seat at the following election in 2017.
Richard Arkless | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament for Dumfries and Galloway | |
| In office 7 May 2015 – 3 May 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Russell Brown |
| Succeeded by | Alister Jack |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 7 July 1975 |
| Party | Scottish National Party |
| Relatives | Nick Arkless (brother) |
| Alma mater | Glasgow Caledonian University University of Strathclyde |
Background and education
Arkless was born in Stranraer in 1975.[3] He spent an early part of his childhood living in London.[3] He returned to Stranraer when he was eight years old.[3]
He received a BA in Financial Services from Glasgow Caledonian University and has an LLB from the University of Strathclyde.[4]
Political career
Arkless began to advocate Scottish independence after the 2007 Scottish Parliament election in which the SNP were elected as a minority government for the first time. After a year, he said the SNP were "doing a pretty good job". When the SNP won a majority in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, he said in a May 2015 interview with The National, "I began to really research the figures – the GDP and tax-take – and I was completely and utterly astonished. I couldn't believe that Scotland had a higher per capita GDP, and much higher per capita tax-take over each of the last thirty-five years. I was flabbergasted and asked myself why I had believed completely the opposite all my life without every trying to make it evidence based."[5]
Standing for the SNP at the 2015 United Kingdom general election, Arkless received 23,440 votes, 41.4% of those cast, winning with a majority of 6,514 votes.[2] He defeated Labour's Russell Brown, who had held the Dumfries and Galloway seat since its creation ten years prior in 2005.[6][7][8][9] His wife Anne worked as his personal assistant.[10] Arkless lost his seat in the UK 2017 general election to Conservative MP Alister Jack. He received 16,701 votes, 32.4% of those cast.[11]
At the 2019 election, Arkless contested the Dumfries and Galloway seat again as the SNP candidate. He received 20,873 of the votes, 40.6% of those cast. He lost out to the Scottish Secretary, Alister Jack for a second time.[12]