Sarah Boyack

Background

Boyack was brought up in Edinburgh where she was one of the first female entrants at the Royal High School. She went on to study at the University of Glasgow in 1979, gaining an MA Honours degree in Modern History and Politics. She became active in the Labour Club, where she was a protégé of Margaret Curran. She became chair of the Labour Club in 1981–82, and chair of the National Organisation of Labour Students in 1985–86. During her time at Glasgow University, she was involved in supporting the twinning with Bir Zeit University in the West Bank.

She then did a Diploma in Town and Country Planning at Heriot-Watt University.

She worked as a town planner in the London Borough of Brent then as a strategic planner in Central Regional Council in Stirling. She then became a lecturer at the School of Planning and Housing at Heriot Watt University and was Convener of the Scottish Branch of the Royal Town Planning Institute in 1997.

Boyack's father, Jim Boyack, was an important figure in the Labour Party and the campaign for Scottish devolution.

Member of the Scottish Parliament

She was elected to the new Scottish Parliament in 1999, and she was Minister for the Environment, Planning and Transport in the Scottish Executive from 1999–2000. Then Minister for Transport 2000–2001 during which time she introduced one of Scottish Labour's flagship policies of free bus travel for people over 60 and disabled people. She was elected Convenor of the Scottish Parliament's Environment and Rural Development Committee in June 2003 and stood down in January 2007 when she returned to the Scottish Executive as Deputy Minister for the Environment and Rural Development.

In November 2004 Boyack received the RSPB Goldcrest Award for the most outstanding contribution to the development of environmental policy in Scotland since devolution and in December 2005 was named the Scottish Renewables Best Politician.

Boyack co-chaired the review of the Labour Party in Scotland with Jim Murphy, commissioned by Ed Miliband in May 2011, which reported in late 2011.

She lost her constituency seat in the 2011 Scottish Parliament general election to Marco Biagi of the SNP but was elected on the Lothian Regional List as one of the seven members.

On 28 October 2014, Boyack declared that she would stand in the upcoming election to become the Leader of the Scottish Labour Party. She came third to Jim Murphy and Neil Findlay with 9.24% of the vote.

Boyack again contested the Edinburgh Central seat in the 2016 general election, but was defeated by Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, who stood for the same constituency. Boyack was also placed third on the Lothian regional list of Labour candidates behind Kezia Dugdale and Neil Findlay, but did not return to Holyrood following the election since Labour won only two list seats.