Tommy Sheppard
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Tommy Sheppard MP |
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Member of Parliament for Edinburgh East |
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Assumed office 8 May 2015 |
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| Preceded by | Sheila Gilmore |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
6 March 1959 Coleraine, Northern Ireland |
| Political party |
Labour (1979–2003) SNP (2014–present) |
| Alma mater | University of Aberdeen |
| Website | tommysheppard |
Tommy Sheppard (born 1959) is a Scottish National Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Edinburgh East since May 2015. He is the SNP spokesperson on the Cabinet Office in the House of Commons. He is also known for founding The Stand Comedy Clubs in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Sheppard was born in Coleraine, County Londonderry, in 1959 and moved to nearby Portstewart at the age of seven. He was educated at Coleraine Academical Institution before attending the University of Aberdeen to study medicine. He graduated with a degree in politics and sociology in 1982. That same year he was elected Vice-President of the NUS and moved to London.
He left the NUS in 1984 to work in the East End of London and in 1986 was elected as a Labour member, on Hackney London Borough Council. In 1990 he became Deputy Leader of the Council. Sheppard unsuccessfully contested Bury St Edmunds at the United Kingdom general election, 1992 for the Labour Party, polling 14,767 votes and 23.6% of the vote. He moved back to Scotland and settled in Edinburgh, taking up a position with the District Council. In 1994 he was appointed Assistant General Secretary of Scottish Labour under John Smith. In 1997 he was made redundant from this role due to internal policy disagreements. He ceased to renew his Labour Party membership in 2003, stating: "I joined the Labour Party in 1979, just before my 21st birthday. Now 25 years later I've finally got around to cancelling the direct debit. I can no longer bring myself to vote Labour. My outlook has barely changed, but clearly the Labour Party has. I can no longer believe the Labour Party is likely to change the world very much, or at least not in a direction I would like".
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