Youth Voice Network for Scotland Meet Alison Thewliss

“Welcome to your vote week” is the Electoral Commission’s annual awareness-raising week aimed at supporting young people to develop the knowledge and confidence they need to cast their vote and discover other ways to get involved in democracy. The theme for 2025 is “Get informed and get involved”.

In the run-up to the week, the Youth Voice Network for Scotland met with the former MP for Glasgow Central, Alison Thewliss, to ask her about her experiences as an elected representative.

Question: Please tell us a bit about yourself.

I became interested in politics when I was younger, before there was a Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Parliament was set up when I was in 6th Year at school. This felt like an exciting and interesting time to get involved, and tied into my interest in modern studies. I have always been interested in changing things and addressing injustice. For example, a lot of my early focus was in health inequalities, especially in Glasgow. This continues to be a big interest for me. I then joined my party and didn’t look back.

Question: Do you feel democracy in Scotland is different to democracy in the UK generally and why?

There are similarities and differences between the UK and Scotland.  Both have representatives, ranging from MPs to councillors, who all engage with people in the same way across the UK.

The Scottish Parliament provides an additional space for people’s voices to be heard through the list system of MSPs. It allows for an extra number of voices to be heard in the system and more variety of political parties to be involved.

In my experience, there is a closeness in Scotland that allows people to engage with the Scottish Parliament, contact them and visit Holyrood very easily, making it more accessible. While London feels very distant for those who want to engage.

Question: How and why did you become an MP, and if you could go back and change her career path what would she change?

When I was growing up I didn’t expect to be an MP! My family was interested in the news, but not interested in politics. I was always interested in current issues and wanting to change things. I joined my party and helped by delivering leaflets, talking to people, listening to others’ views at party conferences. I was elected as a councillor for Glasgow Council. I loved being a councillor and found it rewarding to work with the community and be able to solve or help with issues people were facing. Some issues were easy to solve, while others were more challenging.

After the Referendum in 2014, the SNP started looking for candidates to stand for SNP at the UK Parliament elections. After nine years working as a councillor, I decided I wanted to be tested and applied, although I was not expecting to become an MP. I was chosen after an application process by the SNP.

Working in UK Parliament was an out-of-body experience that I was not expecting. It was an honour and a privilege to be there to represent people and their communities.

Although I didn’t plan for it, it is still good to have an idea of what you want to do and look for opportunities as they come. Never think that things or opportunities are closed off to you – go for it!

Question: If an elected official’s views on a policy or a vote disagreed with the stance of their party, what would they do about it and what is the process?

When you apply to be a candidate, this is often one of the questions you will be asked: will you support your party or the community you represent?  This can be really challenging, as there may be an issue that your party is firm on, but your constituency feels differently. This can be a hard decision for MPs.

It comes down to making a choice – either you go against your party and face consequences, like having to resign or leave the party, or you stand by the party.

When I have been in this position, I considered how to influence or change parts of the policy to align with my views or those of my constituents, and see if there was something we could do.  However, this is not always possible.

Question: How you would tackle misinformation about politics – is there anything you have done or will you do any campaigns?

Social media and its role in sharing misinformation is challenging. Misinformation is a really toxic thing in politics. What I say is my own personal thoughts and views, and others might differ from me. It is important to listen to other people’s views. I was always careful to be factual and truthful in Parliament and if I was wrong or made a mistake, I made efforts to correct it.

If people lose trust in politicians, it can open the door to extremism and to people who do not care about facts.

I have been involved in sharing leaflets to spread information. Information and facts can be spun, it is important that everyone should be able to have honest discussion.

I think there is a need for regulation of social media, as misinformation is dangerous. Currently the Welsh Parliament are debating a bill to stop lying in politics.

Question: How did you deal with the atmosphere of parliament – the banging on the tables, other parities making loud noises and being disruptive?

The atmosphere is really hard, and is designed to throw you off. It was a wall of noise. It is encouraged through the culture and atmosphere of the Parliament. The speaker and house authorities have the power to calm down some of the worst behaviour. The behaviour could also be misogynistic and shouldn’t be tolerated. Some look to modernise parliament and decision-makers are looking to change this behaviour.  It makes politics look like it is just men shouting at each other.

Question: What was your experience of being a woman in parliament, did you ever face discrimination due to being a woman?

It could feel like a male or macho atmosphere. You cannot see yourself in the statues and artwork in Parliament. The atmosphere can be patronising, either ageist or misogynistic.

However, I wouldn’t want this to put people off, there are also a lot of supportive men and women MPs who are there for each other across parties.

In particular, there are debates taking place in Westminster Hall that  can be really insightful; hearing other people’s views on issues and experience, and finding common ground on others.

Parliament is not designed for women, it is not family friendly and does not have enough toilets. The Scottish Parliament building is much more practical!

Although Westminster has a nursery, it is for children that live in London or close by, my children lived in Glasgow. This has a massive impact on accessibility. It impacts who gives evidence and the range of voices being heard. It is too far for people to travel down all the time for early morning sessions. Through research they have found evidence given is overwhelmingly male.

How did you make a subject, topic of discussion or policy interesting to the audience/parliament/government? Especially if it is not an exciting or passionate topic.

There are a lot of issues that can be very dry or very niche in Parliament. I would try and keep my speech short, rather than get too detailed, which is easy to do with a niche topic with lots of technical or legislative information. This makes the issue less accessible to those listening.

One way to engage people on the topic is to link it to real people and make it relatable. For example, for one policy, I linked every amendment to a real person from my constituency and their story. This showed the listener the impact of the amendment/policy.

Question: How did you go about campaigning to become an MP? What was the process and what did you have to do?

Most parties have an application process to become a candidate for their party. You get asked why you want to be a candidate, what you want to do as a candidate. Sometimes there are exercises given to show your ability.

For my party, there is a Ballot of Members, so constituency members decide on the candidates, and this happens each time. Different parties will approach this differently.

Campaigning itself involves a lot behind the scenes, and I had a whole team supporting me. With social media, there is a lot more targeted advertising, social media posts and videos.

But there is also still a lot of traditional campaigning, including knocking on doors and giving out leaflets. It was important for me to go to all the different communities and listen to people, even if they had different views and wouldn’t be voting for you. This shouldn’t just happen during election time, you should be present all year round. Other campaigning includes targeted letters, checking in with people, help with postal voting, checking if they need a lift to the polling station. I was very hands-on in my campaigning and would encourage others to be.

Question: As an MP, what was your biggest achievement or what you are most proud of?

I am most proud of helping my constituents with a range of different issues such as benefits, housing, immigration – making a big difference to people’s lives.

I am also proud of the stances I took and my campaigning work – for example the two-child benefit cap is still a topic that is talked about due to strong campaigning, and has been kept on the agenda. I am also proud of my work on immigration, being principled and standing against the Rwanda Bill. It is hard to stand up – but I am proud that I did.

I would say to you all that you don’t realise the impact you make when you raise issues with your local representatives – contact your MP!

Welcome to Your Vote Week 2025 is 10^th to 16^th March 2025. To find out more and see you how can get involved, visit the Electoral Commission website.