Emma Harper
MSP
Harper in 2016
Member of the Scottish Parliament
for South Scotland
(1 of 7 Regional MSPs)
Assumed office
5 May 2016
Personal details
BornStranraer, Scotland
Political partyScottish National Party

Emma Harper is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician. She has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the South Scotland region since the 2016 Scottish Parliament election.[1]

Early life

Harper was born and raised on a farm near Stranraer where her father was a dairyman. She attended Stranraer Academy. In 1978, the family moved to a farm near Annan and she attended Annan Academy prior to her nurse training in Dumfries at the Royal College of Nursing and Midwifery.[2] After qualifying, she worked at the Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary.[3]

Harper has worked in hospitals in NHS Scotland and NHS England, and at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, United States. Her work included: transplant and trauma surgery, before going on to lead nursing surgical teams and provide specialist clinical education.[2]

Harper is a degree-registered nurse and a member of the Royal College of Nursing and the Association for Perioperative Practice.

As a keen Burnsian, Harper is past president of Dumfries Ladies Burns Club Number 1.

Political career

Harper joined the SNP in 2010.[2]

In 2015 she stood for the UK Parliament as SNP candidate for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale & Tweeddale. She finished second and achieved a huge swing of +27.5% of the vote for the SNP, narrowly losing the seat by only 798 votes.[4]

In 2016 she was elected MSP to the Scottish Parliament for South Scotland (region), and was deputy convenor to the Health and Sport Committee and member of the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee.[5]

In 2019 she downplayed the issues around creating a new currency in an independent Scotland to a BBC audience, remarking that her recent holiday to Mexico demonstrated that, "plastic translates anywhere where you are"; she then claimed Scottish issued bank notes were currently being exchanged for more than English ones on the foreign exchange markets, which indicated that (in the future) "Our Scottish pounds have the propensity to be really really strong".[6][7][8]

She was the top SNP candidate on the regional list in South Scotland at the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.[9]

During the campaign she courted controversy when she told ITV that a hard border between an independent Scotland and England would bring opportunities, insisting: "We can show that a border will work, there are issues that have been brought to my attention that show that jobs can be created if a border is created."[10] Her party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, disavowed the remarks and claimed: "I've not seen Emma's comments directly but nobody in the SNP wants to see a border between Scotland and England."[10] In an opinion piece for The Scotsman, former Labour MP Brian Wilson remarked of the controversy: "First, in the real world, Scotland does more trade with Yorkshire than with China. Second, Ms Harper is a star in the SNP firmament, placed top of their regional list and a racing cert to return to Holyrood. Ye gods."[11]

Harper was re-elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2021.

References

  1. ↑ "Election 2016: South Scotland. Scottish Parliament region". BBC News. 6 May 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Smith, Peter (14 April 2015). "STV election profile: Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale". STV News. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  3. ↑ "MSP Emma Harper to return to nursing in coronavirus fight". ITV News. 17 March 2020.
  4. ↑ Kilpatrick, Sandy (6 July 2015). "MP David Mundell's spent more than total of all his rival candidates". Daily Record.
  5. ↑ "Emma Harper". www.parliament.scot.
  6. ↑ @ChannelUK1 (12 May 2021). "COULD SCOTLAND'S NEW CURRENCY BE PLASTIC?The SNP's Emma harper is tipped to take over as Scotland's Finance Minis…" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  7. ↑ Reporting Border [@ITVBorderRB] (22 April 2021). "'Jobs can be created if a border is created'. @theSNP candidate Emma Harper says her party wants 'the softest of borders' between Scotland and England & it could create local jobs #indyref2" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 22 April 2021. Retrieved 22 April 2021 – via Twitter.
  8. ↑ "Constituency report: Galloway & West Dumfries". ITV News. 22 April 2021.
  9. ↑ Hannan, Martin (6 March 2021). "Candidates from BAME backgrounds top SNP Holyrood election lists". The National. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  10. 1 2 Bol, David (23 April 2021). "Sturgeon responds to SNP MSP claiming Scotland-England border would 'create jobs'". The Herald.
  11. ↑ Wilson, Brian (24 April 2021). "SNP candidate's car-crash interview about Scotland-England border got me thinking". The Scotsman.
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