Richard Thomson (politician)

Richard Gordon Thomson (born 16 June 1976) is a Scottish politician. He is a member of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gordon from 2019 until the seats abolition in 2024. He was also previously the leader of the SNP group on Aberdeenshire Council. He was the SNP Spokesperson for Business and Trade from 2022, and SNP Spokesperson for Wales and Northern Ireland since 2021.

Early life and education
Thomson was born in Edinburgh in 1976, the son of Alexander and Ethel Thomson.

He was educated at Tynecastle High School, Edinburgh, before going to the University of Stirling to study History and Politics. He gained a BA (Hons) in 1998. He is presently studying part-time for an MBA from the Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University.

Career
He worked for Scottish Widows in Edinburgh from 1999 to 2004, firstly as an Assistant Manager in their Customer Relations Department, and latterly as an Account Manager in Corporate Pensions.

He contributed a chapter exploring the 'social democratisation of the SNP' to a book on post-devolution politics called Breaking Up Britain – Four Nations After a Union, published in 2009 by Lawrence & Wishart.

Since 2017, he has been Deputy Editor of The Scottish Independent newspaper.

Political career
In 2001, he unsuccessfully contested the Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale constituency, a safe seat for the Liberal Democrats in which Thomson came fourth with 4,108 votes (12.4%). Thomson was former Head of Campaigns for the Scottish National Party from 2004 to 2005, and the party's Westminster Head of Research, before returning to Aberdeenshire in the summer of 2008 to work for First Minister Alex Salmond. Thomson was Parliamentary Assistant to Salmond from 2008 to 2011.

He worked as a senior researcher to MSP Shona Robison and MP Stewart Hosie from 2000 to 2007. In 2010, he stood in Gordon: the Liberal Democrat Malcolm Bruce retained his seat, but Thomson took the SNP into second place.

Thomson was on Aberdeenshire Council from 2012 to 2020. He was leader of Aberdeenshire Council from June 2015 until May 2017, and Opposition Leader from 2017 to 2020. He represented the council on the North Sea Commission, where he was vice-chair of the Marine Resources Group.

He was selected to contest the Gordon constituency for the second time at the 2019 general election. During the campaign he claimed, "A vote for me.. is not a vote for Scottish independence and I will never, ever, try and claim it as such." He narrowly won the seat from the Conservative incumbent Colin Clark, with a slim majority of 819 votes (1.4%).

In March 2020, Thomson resigned from Aberdeenshire Council to "concentrate 100% on being the MP for the Gordon Constituency".

In 2023, when questioned about Inverurie’s largest medical practice not renewing its NHS contract due to recruitment issues, Thomson said he “would do everything” he could “to attract doctors to the constituency”.

In the 2024 United Kingdom general election, he contested Gordon and Buchan but was defeated by Harriet Cross.

Personal life
Thomson lives in Ellon, Aberdeenshire. His partner is Eilidh Mackechnie; the couple have two daughters.