Christine May is a Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 Co-operative

Co-operative Party

The Co-operative Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom committed to supporting and representing co-operative principles. The party does not put up separate candidates for any UK election itself. Instead, Co-operative candidates stand jointly with the Labour Party as "Labour...

 politician, and was Member of the Scottish Parliament

Member of the Scottish Parliament

Member of the Scottish Parliament is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament.-Methods of Election:MSPs are elected in one of two ways:...

 for Fife Central

Fife Central (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Central Fife is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...

 constituency from 2003 to 2007. Raised and educated in Dublin, Christine worked in the catering industry in Dublin and then London, and first moved to Scotland in 1984, where she became a college lecturer.

She was elected to the Fife Central seat after former First Minister

First Minister of Scotland

The First Minister of Scotland is the political leader of Scotland and head of the Scottish Government. The First Minister chairs the Scottish Cabinet and is primarily responsible for the formulation, development and presentation of Scottish Government policy...

 Henry McLeish

Henry McLeish

Henry Baird McLeish is a Scottish Labour Party politician, author and academic. Formerly a professional association football player, McLeish was the Member of Parliament for Central Fife from 1987 to 2001 and the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Central Fife from 1999 to 2003, during which...

 stood down as MSP following a scandal relating to the sub-letting of his constituency office - dubbed "Officegate

Officegate

The Officegate scandal was a controversy surrounding then Scottish First Minister Henry McLeish in 2001. It resulted in his resignation from the post....

" by the media. She had previously been leader of Fife

Fife

Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...

 Council from 1998. She represented a ward in Kirkcaldy

Kirkcaldy

Kirkcaldy is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. The town lies on a shallow bay on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth; SSE of Glenrothes, ENE of Dunfermline, WSW of Dundee and NNE of Edinburgh...

 as a councillor, and still lives in the town, which is just outside the Fife Central constituency. Her constituency office was based in Glenrothes

Glenrothes

Glenrothes is a large town situated in the heart of Fife, in east-central Scotland. It is located approximately from both Edinburgh, which lies to the south and Dundee to the north. The town had an estimated population of 38,750 in 2008, making Glenrothes the third largest settlement in Fife...

, adjacent to Fife Council's headquarters.

In 2007 she lost her constituency to SNP

Scottish National Party

The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....

 politician Tricia Marwick.

Christine May is a Catholic, and is married with two grown-up children.

External links

• Christine May MSP personal site
• Christine May MSP official biography at the Scottish Parliament website
• Christine May MSP profile at the site of Scottish Labour