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George Kerevan

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George Kerevan
Kerevan in 2015
Member of Parliament
for East Lothian
In office
8 May 2015 – 3 May 2017
Preceded byFiona O'Donnell
Succeeded byMartin Whitfield
Personal details
Born (1949-09-28) 28 September 1949 (age 75)
Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Political partyAlba (2021–)
Other political
affiliations		IMG (1972–82)
SLP (1976)
Labour (c. 1982–96)
SNP (1996–2021)
Alma materUniversity of Glasgow
WebsiteOfficial website

George Kerevan (born 28 September 1949) is a Scottish journalist, economist, and politician. He was the Scottish National Party Member of Parliament (MP) for East Lothian from 2015, until he lost his seat to Martin Whitfield of the Labour Party at the 2017 general election.

Early life and education

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Born in Glasgow, Kerevan was educated at Kingsridge Secondary School in Drumchapel[1] and the University of Glasgow, graduating with a First-class MA degree in political economy.[2]

Career

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Kerevan held academic posts at Napier College, including Senior Lecturer in Economics, from 1975 to 2000, specialising in energy economics. He was associate editor of The Scotsman from 2000 to 2009,[2] and was the chief executive of What If Productions (Television) Ltd. He is co-organiser of the Prestwick World Festival of Flight.[3]

Political career

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Kerevan was a member of the International Marxist Group (IMG), a Trotskyist group, between 1972 and 1982.[4] During this time, alongside many other Scottish IMG activists, he joined Jim Sillars' fledgling Scottish Labour Party (SLP) using entryist tactics, a process that resulted in a purge of the IMG-associated members by Sillars at the party's first conference in October 1976.[5][6] Following the demise of the IMG, Kerevan joined the Labour Party and served as a councillor for the party in Edinburgh from 1984 to 1996. In 1996, he left Labour to join the Scottish National Party.[7] He went on to stand unsuccessfully as the SNP candidate for Edinburgh East at the 2010 UK general election, as well as an SNP candidate in the Lothian region in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election.[citation needed]

Kerevan eventually stood successfully as the SNP candidate for East Lothian at the 2015 UK general election. He won 25,104 votes, a majority of 6,803, and unseated the then-incumbent Labour MP Fiona O'Donnell. He was a member of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee.[8] He subsequently lost his seat in the 2017 general election to Martin Whitfield of the Labour Party, who won with a majority of 3,083 votes over Kerevan.[9]

In March 2021, Kerevan defected from the SNP to the Alba Party.[10] He stood for Lothian East at the 2024 United Kingdom general election, where he finished in seventh place out of seven candidates, winning 577 votes and a 1.2% share.[11]

Selected works

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He is the co-author, with Alan Cochrane, of Scottish Independence: Yes or No, published in April 2014.

  • Arguments within Scottish Marxism, in The Bulletin of Scottish Politics No. 2, Spring 1981, pp. 111 - 133
  • The Collapse of the Scottish Economy, in Dunion, Kevin (ed.), Radical Scotland, February/March 1983, pp. 6 - 8, ISSN 0262-6993
  • Kerevan, George (1985). The case for Scottish coal.
  • Kerevan, George (1986). The case for retaining a European coal industry: a critical response to the EEC Coal Directorate's close-and-import plan as laid out in COM (85)251 and COM (85)525.
  • Kerevan, George (1987). The case for retaining Seafield: a special report on Seafield Colliery and the reasons why Seafield coal is vital to Scotland's energy future.
  • Kerevan, George (1988). Scottish coalfields study 1988. Scottish Coal Project.
  • Kerevan, George; Scottish Coal Project (1988). A plan for Scotland's energy future. Scottish Coal Project.

References

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  1. ^ Kerevan, George (16 December 2011). "Harsh lesson is children need to work harder". The Scotsman. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
  2. ^ a b Swanson, Ian (9 May 2015). "SNP brings seismic shift to Edinburgh politics". Evening News. Johnston Press. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  3. ^ Dalton, Alastair (6 March 2013). "Twin Pin planes to fly for Scottish homecoming trip". The Scotsman. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  4. ^ "Defending a socialist programme". Scottish Socialist Voice. Archived from the original on 28 June 2016. Retrieved 12 March 2018.
  5. ^ Ben Jackson, The Case for Scottish Independence: A History of Nationalist Political Thought in Modern Scotland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), p. 101.
  6. ^ H. M. Drucker, Breakaway: The Scottish Labour Party (Edinburgh: EUSPB, 1978), pp. 116-8.
  7. ^ Denver, DT (2000). Scotland decides: the devolution issue and the 1997 referendum. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7146-5053-1.
  8. ^ "Treasury Committee - membership". House of Commons. 8 July 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  9. ^ "Labour's Martin Whitfield elected as East Lothian's new MP". East Lothian Courier. 9 June 2017.
  10. ^ "Former SNP MP Kerevan becomes latest to defect to Alba Party". Express and Star. 30 March 2021.
  11. ^ "East Lothian's MP to stand elsewhere, as county's former MP seeks to return". East Lothian Courier. 18 May 2024. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for East Lothian
2015–2017 		Succeeded by
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