# Cara Hilton > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Cara_Hilton > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Cara_Hilton.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cara_Hilton > Source revision: 1347242474 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Labour member of the Scottish Parliament (born 1975) Cara Hilton Hilton in 2015 Member of the Scottish Parliament for Dunfermline In office 25 October 2013 – 24 March 2016 Preceded by Bill Walker Succeeded by Shirley-Anne Somerville Personal details Born 1975 (age 50–51) Party Scottish Labour Other political affiliations Campaign for Socialism Spouse Simon Relations Cathy Peattie (mother) Children 3 **Cara Laura Hilton** (born 1975) is a [Scottish Labour](/source/Scottish_Labour) politician, who was the [Member of the Scottish Parliament](/source/Member_of_the_Scottish_Parliament) (MSP) for [Dunfermline](/source/Dunfermline_(Scottish_Parliament_constituency)) from 2013 to 2016.[1] She has served as a councillor for [Dunfermline South](/source/Dunfermline_South_(ward)) since [2022](/source/2022_Fife_Council_election). ## Political career Hilton was the Labour candidate at the [Dunfermline by-election](/source/2013_Dunfermline_by-election) on 20 October 2013. She won by a majority of more than 2,800 votes, overturning a previous [Scottish National Party](/source/Scottish_National_Party) (SNP) majority of 590. This was the first time ever that Labour had won a parliamentary seat (in either the UK or Scottish parliaments) from the SNP at a by-election. In her victory speech, Hilton praised the courage of preceding MSP [Bill Walker](/source/Bill_Walker_(Scottish_nationalist_politician))'s ex-wives. Walker's conviction for assault against his former wives had led to his resignation from parliament, causing the by-election.[2] [Alex Salmond](/source/Alex_Salmond) accused her of running a dishonest campaign, including the circulation of a leaflet criticised by the SNP as "demonstrably untrue".[3] In the [Scottish Parliament election](/source/2016_Scottish_Parliament_election) of 2016, Hilton lost her seat to the SNP's [Shirley-Anne Somerville](/source/Shirley-Anne_Somerville), who she had previously defeated at the by-election three years earlier. Along with the loss of the neighbouring [Cowdenbeath](/source/Cowdenbeath_(Scottish_Parliament_constituency)) constituency, this left the Labour Party without parliamentary representation in Fife for the first time since 1910. Hilton was the Labour Party candidate for [Dumfermline and West Fife](/source/Dunfermline_and_West_Fife_(UK_Parliament_constituency)) in the [2017](/source/2017_United_Kingdom_general_election) and [2019 general elections](/source/2019_United_Kingdom_general_election), but both times came second behind the incumbent [SNP](/source/Scottish_National_Party) MP [Douglas Chapman](/source/Douglas_Chapman_(Scottish_politician)).[4] Hilton served as vice-chair of Scottish Labour from 2019 to 2020, and has served as chair of Scottish Labour since 2020.[5] ## Personal life Hilton is the daughter of former Labour MSP and Scottish Labour chair [Cathy Peattie](/source/Cathy_Peattie).[6] Her husband is Simon, and she has three children. ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-autogenerated1_1-0)** ["Labour and SNP pick Dunfermline by-election candidates"](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-24106115). BBC News. Retrieved 19 September 2013. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["New Dunfermline MSP praises 'bravery' of Bill Walker's ex-wives"](http://news.stv.tv/politics/245253-dunfermline-by-election-new-msp-cara-hilton-gives-victory-speech/). 25 October 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Labour campaign leaflet brings claims of panic"](http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/politics/dunfermline-by-election-labour-campaign-leaflet-brings-claim-of-panic-1.144342/). 22 October 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2013. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["Dunfermline & West Fife parliamentary constituency"](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/S14000017). *BBC News*. Retrieved 24 September 2017. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["Who's on the SEC?"](https://scottishlabour.org.uk/about/whos-on-the-sec/). *Scottish Labour*. Retrieved 25 October 2019. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-autogenerated2_6-0)** ["Cara Hilton picked as Labour candidate for Dunfermline by-election"](https://web.archive.org/web/20131019220456/http://news.stv.tv/east-central/239659-cara-hilton-picked-as-labour-candidate-for-dunfermline-by-election/). STV News. Archived from [the original](http://news.stv.tv/east-central/239659-cara-hilton-picked-as-labour-candidate-for-dunfermline-by-election/) on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013. ## External links - Scottish Parliament profiles of MSPs: [Cara Hilton](https://www.parliament.scot/msps/current-and-previous-msps/cara-hilton) - [Cara Hilton](https://x.com/cara_hilton) on [X](/source/X_(social_network)) - [Cara Hilton](https://www.instagram.com/hilton.cara/) on [Instagram](/source/Instagram_(identifier)) v t e Former Labour Party MSPs By date first representing Scottish Labour in the Scottish Parliament 1999 Wendy Alexander Scott Barrie Sarah Boyack Rhona Brankin Bill Butler Malcolm Chisholm Cathie Craigie Margaret Curran Susan Deacon Donald Dewar Helen Eadie Patricia Ferguson Sam Galbraith Karen Gillon Trish Godman Rhoda Grant Iain Gray Hugh Henry John Home Robertson Janis Hughes Gordon Jackson Sylvia Jackson Cathy Jamieson Margaret Jamieson Andy Kerr Johann Lamont Marilyn Livingstone Jack McConnell Lewis Macdonald Angus MacKay Kate Maclean Ken Macintosh Maureen Macmillan Paul Martin John McAllion Frank McAveety Tom McCabe Baron McConnell of Glenscorrodale Henry McLeish Michael McMahon Duncan McNeil Des McNulty Alasdair Morrison Bristow Muldoon Mary Mulligan Elaine Murray Irene Oldfather Peter Peacock Cathy Peattie Richard Simpson Elaine Smith Elaine Thomson Mike Watson Ian Welsh Karen Whitefield Allan Wilson 2001 Brian Fitzpatrick 2003 Richard Baker Marlyn Glen Christine May 2005 Charlie Gordon 2007 Baron Foulkes of Cumnock James Kelly John Park David Stewart David Whitton 2011 Claudia Beamish Kezia Dugdale Mary Fee Neil Findlay Hanzala Malik Jenny Marra Margaret McCulloch Margaret McDougall Siobhan McMahon Anne McTaggart Graeme Pearson John Pentland Drew Smith 2012 Jayne Baxter 2013 Cara Hilton 2014 Alex Rowley 2016 Lesley Brennan Monica Lennon Richard Leonard Colin Smyth 2021 Foysol Choudhury Pam Duncan-Glancy Paul O'Kane Mercedes Villalba Martin Whitfield 2025 Davy Russell --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Cara Hilton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cara_Hilton) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cara_Hilton?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.