Why I’m Labour
I grew up in one of the most deprived areas of the UK – a council estate in Kirkcaldy during the 1980’s miner’s strike. My route out of that was to work hard at school and go on to complete a degree and eventually a PhD.

This solid educational base has led me to a career which has taken me right around the world – from Australia to Brazil and Dubai.

My experience tells me that education is fundamental to reducing inequality in Scotland and elsewhere in the world. As an academic who manages one of the UK’s leading engineering programmes at a Scottish university, I continually come across students with backgrounds like mine who must leave university because they simply cannot afford to support themselves. This injustice is why I joined Labour.