Angus Robertson

Robertson was born in Wimbledon, London, to a Scottish father, Struan, who was an engineer, and a German mother, Anna, who was a nurse. Robertson was brought up in Edinburgh and speaks fluent German. He was educated at Broughton High School, Edinburgh and the University of Aberdeen, where he graduated in 1991 with an MA Honours degree in politics and international relations. After university he embarked on a journalistic career, and worked as a foreign and diplomatic correspondent in Central Europe for the BBC World Service, and then for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF.

Robertson joined the Scottish National Party in 1984, at the age of 15, after being given a leaflet about the party's youth wing by Charlie Reid of The Proclaimers. He was the European and International Affairs Adviser to the SNP Group in the Scottish Parliament.

Robertson was first elected to the UK House of Commons in June 2001, representing the Moray constituency. During his first parliamentary session, Robertson was Scotland's youngest MP and was rated Scotland's "hardest working MP" according to statistics from the House of Commons.[3] He was a member of the European Scrutiny Committee from 2001 to 2010, and served as the SNP's spokesman on Defence and International Relations. Robertson was well above average amongst MPs in the number of contributions he made in the House of Commons.[4] In January 2006, Robertson provided Swiss Senator Dick Marty a report containing what he calls 'a detailed report of numerous suspect movements of aircraft transiting through Scotland.[5]

In May 2007, he became SNP Leader in the House of Commons, following Alex Salmond's election as First Minister of Scotland.[6] Following the 2015 general election and the election of Salmond as MP for Gordon, it was confirmed that he would continue in his role as leader in the Commons. In September 2015, he was appointed to the Privy Council and as a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament.[7][8]

In January 2016, Robertson said that British Prime Minister David Cameron should admit to British involvement in Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen: "Isn't it time for the Prime Minister to admit that Britain is effectively taking part in a war in Yemen that is costing thousands of civilians lives and he has not sought parliamentary approval to do this?"[9]

On 13 October 2016, he was elected Depute Leader of the SNP, replacing Stewart Hosie. Robertson received 52.5% of the votes, defeating Tommy Sheppard (25.5%), Alyn Smith (18.6%) and Chris McEleny (3.3%) in the election.[1] He resigned in February 2018.[10]

He lost his parliamentary seat to the Conservatives in the June 2017 UK general election.[11] He subsequently established and ran Progress Scotland, a pro-independence think-tank.[11]

In February 2020, Robertson announced his intention to contest the Edinburgh Central constituency in the next Scottish Parliament election (due to be held in May 2021).[11] He won selection ahead of Marco Biagi, a former MSP for the area.[12]

Robertson's wife, Jennifer Dempsie, is a former advisor to Alex Salmond. Dempsie campaigned to inherit Salmond's Scottish Parliament seat in Aberdeenshire East[15] but withdrew to focus on her business career.[16]

Outside politics Robertson is a music fan, and particularly likes Metallica and Belle and Sebastian.[17] He is a supporter of the Heart of Midlothian F.C football team.[18]

In August 2016, he was awarded the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the Austrian Republic.[19]

Party

• Member, National Executive, Young Scottish Nationalists (1986)
• National organiser, Federation of Student Nationalists (1988)
• Member, SNP International Bureau
• Depute SNP spokesperson for Constitutional and External Affairs (1998–1999)
• European policy adviser, SNP Group, Scottish Parliament

Parliamentary

• SNP Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and for Defence (2001–present)
• SNP Spokesperson for Europe and for Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (2005–07)
• SNP Westminster Group Deputy Leader (2005–07)
• SNP Westminster Group Leader (2007–2017)

• Robertson, Angus (2010). Why Vote SNP. Biteback Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84954-034-6.

• personal website
• SNP profile
• STV News profile
• Guardian profile
• They Work For You
• The Public Whip
• 2009 Interview: Angus Robertson – politics.co.uk
• Appearances on C-SPAN