Miles Briggs

Miles Edward Frank Briggs (born 30 March 1983) is a British politician of the Scottish Conservative Party, who has served as a regional list Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Lothian region since the 2016 Scottish Parliament election.[1] He served as the Scottish Conservative Shadow Cabinet member for Health and Sport from 2017 to 2020 and as the Scottish Conservative Chief Whip from 2020 to 2021.

Miles Briggs
MSP
Briggs in 2016
Chief Whip of the Scottish Conservative Party
In office
11 August 2020 – 11 May 2021
LeaderDouglas Ross
Preceded byLiz Smith
Succeeded byStephen Kerr
Member of the Scottish Parliament
for Lothian
(1 of 7 Regional MSPs)
Assumed office
5 May 2016
Personal details
Born
Miles Edward Frank Briggs

(1983-03-30) 30 March 1983
Preston, Lancashire, England
Political partyScottish Conservatives
Alma materRobert Gordon University
Websitewww.milesbriggs.scot

Early life

Briggs was born in Preston, Lancashire in England, before moving to Perthshire with his family when he was young. Briggs was educated at Auchtergaven Primary School, Perth Grammar School and Robert Gordon University.

Political career

Briggs was the official Conservative Party candidate at the 2010 general election for the North East Fife constituency, then in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election for North East Fife. In 2016, he stood for the Edinburgh Southern constituency.

In December 2015, Briggs was named second on the Scottish Conservatives' Lothian regional list in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, behind party leader Ruth Davidson.[2]

Briggs is the Scottish Conservative spokesman for Mental Health and Public Health in the Scottish Parliament[3] In addition, he sits on the Health and Sport Committee of the Scottish Parliament.[4]

Briggs was announced as the official Conservative Party candidate for Edinburgh South West at the 2017 general election. He finished in second place, and received 16,478 votes, behind the sitting SNP MP, Joanna Cherry. Despite not being elected, Briggs was successful in significantly reducing Cherry's majority from 8,135 votes at the previous election, to just 1,097 votes.

On 12 January 2022, Briggs called for Boris Johnson to resign as Conservative party leader and Prime Minister over the Westminster lockdown parties controversy along with a majority of Scottish Conservative MSPs.[5]

Controversy

In 2018, Briggs was accused by a woman from another political party of sexual harassment at a parliamentary event. After an internal investigation, the Scottish Conservatives found Briggs not guilty of making "unwanted persistent advances" towards the woman. Women's rights charity Rape Crisis Scotland voiced "significant concerns" with how the investigation was conducted and called on the Scottish Conservatives to change the way they investigate claims of sexual harassment. The charity claimed that the party would not reveal whether the investigating committee had received training in how to investigate sexual harassment complaints.[6]

References
  1. "Election 2016: Lothian. Scottish Parliament region". BBC News. 6 May 2016.
  2. "Ruth Davidson and Miles Briggs at top of regional list". Edinburgh Evening News. 12 December 2016. Archived from the original on 10 July 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  3. "Scottish Conservative appointments for new parliamentary term". Scottish Conservative Party. 26 May 2016. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
  4. "Miles Briggs MSP". Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
  5. Green, Chris (12 January 2022). "Majority of Scottish Tories' 31 MSPs at Holyrood now openly calling for the Prime Minister to resign". Twitter. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  6. "Row as Tory MSP Miles Briggs is cleared by party of sexual harassment". The Scotsman. 25 September 2018.


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