Alan Brown (Scottish politician)

Alan Brown (born 12 August 1970) is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kilmarnock and Loudoun from 2015 until 2024. Brown previously served as the SNP spokesperson on Energy Security and Net Zero (2022–2023), Energy and Climate Change (2020–2022), Transport (2017–2020) and Infrastructure and Energy (2017–2018) in the House of Commons.

Early life and career
Alan Brown was born on 12 August 1970 to parents Eric and Irene in Kilmarnock; Brown has lived there all his life. He attended his local primary school and Loudoun Academy. He subsequently attended Glasgow University, where he graduated with an honours degree in civil engineering. After university Brown worked as a civil engineer in both the public and private sectors.

He was first elected as a SNP councillor in the 2007 East Ayrshire Council election for the Irvine Valley ward, topping the poll with 1,497 first preferences. He was re-elected in the 2012 East Ayrshire Council election, taking the second seat on this occasion with 1,252 first preferences but again exceeding the quota. A senior figure in the SNP delegation, he has held positions in Housing and Strategic Planning & Resources.

Member of Parliament
At the 2015 general election, Brown was elected to Parliament as MP for Kilmarnock and Loudon with 55.7% of the vote and a majority of 13,638. He made his maiden speech on 22 June, in which he quoted the poem Is There for Honest Poverty by Robert Burns.

Brown has revealed that Hansard reporters in Parliament often ask him to provide written 'translations'' of his questions to the Commons due to his thick Ayrshire accent being difficult to understand. Even so, he has said he would not alter his accent because his constituents “know me locally and know how I talk, they would actually question what was happening if my accent changed when I came down to Westminster”.

Brown was re-elected as MP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun at the snap 2017 general election with a decreased vote share of 42.3% and a decreased majority of 6,269 votes. At the 2019 general election, Brown was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 50.8% and an increased majority of 12,659.

Brown contested the Kilmarnock and Loudoun parliamentary constituency at the 2024 United Kingdom general election. He lost the seat, which he had held since 2015, to Scottish Labour candidate Lillian Jones, who won with a majority of 5,119 votes. At the election, Brown received 13,936 votes, in contrast to Jones' 19,055 votes.

Trident
In 2016, Brown was one of 58 Scottish MPs who voted against the renewal of the UK's Trident nuclear programme. He claimed the programme had not served as a deterrent and that each job created through it cost the UK taxpayer £6.5 million.

SNP frontbencher
On 20 June 2017, Brown was appointed to the Frontbench Team of Ian Blackford as the SNP spokesperson on Transport, Infrastructure and Energy in the Palace of Westminster. In 2019 during a reshuffle, Brown was appointed to the role of SNP spokesperson on Energy and Climate Change by Iain Blackford.

Brown also held the position of spokesperson for the SNP in Westminster for Transport, a position held from 2017 until 2020. Brown sat on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee within the House of Commons until losing his seat at the 2024 general election.

Personal life
Brown is married and has two sons.