Preceded by Russell Brown Role Scottish Politician Name Richard Arkless | Nationality Scottish Majority 6,514 (11.5%) | |
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Political party Scottish National Party Education University of Glasgow School of Law Profiles | ||
Richard arkless in conversation with karen campbell
Richard Lambert Thomas Arkless (born 7 July 1975) is a Scottish National Party politician, who was elected as MP for Dumfries and Galloway at the 2015 UK general election on 7 May of that year.
Contents
- Richard arkless in conversation with karen campbell
- Hi i m richard arkless the snp westminster candidate for dumfries galloway
- Background and education
- Political career
- Business career
- References
Hi i m richard arkless the snp westminster candidate for dumfries galloway
Background and education
Arkless was born in Stranraer in 1975. He spent an early part of his childhood living in London. He returned to Stranraer when he was eight years old.
He received a BA in Financial Services from Glasgow Caledonian University and has an LLB from the University of Strathclyde.
Political career
Arkless began to advocate Scottish independence after the 2007 Scottish Parliamentary election in which the SNP were elected as a minority government for the first time. After a year, he said the SNP were "doing a pretty good job". When the SNP won a majority in the 2011 Scottish Parliamentary election, he said in a May 2015 interview with The National, "I began to really research the figures – the GDP and tax-take – and I was completely and utterly astonished. I couldn't believe that Scotland had a higher per capita GDP, and much higher per capita tax-take over each of the last thirty-five years. I was flabbergasted and asked myself why I had believed completely the opposite all my life without every trying to make it evidence based."
Standing for the SNP at the 2015 UK general election, Arkless received 23,440 votes, 41.4% of those cast, winning with a majority of 6,514 votes. He defeated Labour's Russell Brown, who had held the Dumfries and Galloway seat since it's creation ten years prior in 2005. His wife Anne worked as his personal assistant. Arkless lost his seat in the UK 2017 general election to conservative MP Alister Jack. He received 16,701 votes, 32.4% of those cast.
Business career
Arkless left his job as a solicitor to run an online business.