{{Short description|Scottish politician (born 1970)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Karen Whitefield | honorific_suffix = | image = KarenWhitefield.jpg | caption = | constituency_MP = [[Airdrie and Shotts (Scottish Parliament constituency)|Airdrie and Shotts]] | parliament = Scottish | majority = | term_start = 6 May 1999 | term_end = 22 March 2011 | predecessor = ''new constituency'' | successor = [[Alex Neil (politician)|Alex Neil]] | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1970|01|8|df=yes}} | birth_place = [[Bellshill]], Scotland | birth_name = | party = [[Scottish Labour]] | spouse = | relations = | children = | alma_mater = | occupation = | profession = | cabinet = | committees = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} '''Karen Whitefield''' (born 8 January 1970, [[Bellshill]]) is a [[Scottish Labour]] politician. She was the [[Member of the Scottish Parliament]] (MSP) for the [[Airdrie and Shotts (Scottish Parliament constituency)|Airdrie and Shotts]] constituency from [[1999 Scottish Parliament election|1999]] to [[2011 Scottish Parliament election|2011]].
==Political career== Prior to her election as MSP, she worked as a personal assistant to [[Rachel Squire]] [[Member of Parliament (UK)|MP]].
===MSP for Airdrie and Shotts: 1999–2011=== She was elected as MSP for Airdrie and Shotts at the [[1999 Scottish Parliament election]]. As an MSP, she chaired the [[Scottish Parliament|Parliament's]] Education Committee, where she used her casting vote to reject the student graduate endowment bill, a [[Scottish National Party]] (SNP) flagship policy. It had the backing of the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]] and SNP members, but not the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] or [[Scottish Conservatives|Conservative]] members of the committee.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7141315.stm | work=BBC News | title=MSPs reject graduate charge plan | date=13 December 2007}}</ref> The bill was eventually passed in the Scottish Parliament by a vote of 67 to 61. Whitefield was Scottish Labour's shadow Minister for Children in the Scottish Parliament, and Convener of the Cross-Party Group on Diabetes under Iain Gray. At the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, she lost her seat to [[Alex Neil (politician)|Alex Neil]] of the SNP. Whitefield was one of nine Labour MSPs to lose their constituency seats after holding them since the first election to the Scottish Parliament twelve years earlier.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13305003 |work=BBC News |title=Scottish election: Labour's 'class of '99' lose to SNP |publisher=BBC |date=6 May 2011 |accessdate=8 December 2013}}</ref>
===Falkirk PPC: 2015=== Following the resignation of sitting MP [[Eric Joyce]] (and the controversial and flawed [[2013 Labour Party Falkirk candidate selection]]), in a re-run in which all the previous candidates were excluded on 8 December 2013, Whitefield was selected to contest for the [[Falkirk (UK Parliament constituency)|Falkirk constituency]] at the [[2015 United Kingdom general election|2015 UK general election]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-25279685 |work=BBC News |title=Falkirk Labour: Karen Whitefield chosen after selection row |publisher=BBC |date=8 December 2013 |accessdate=8 December 2013}}</ref> However, at the 2015 UK general election, the SNP won a landslide victory with 56 seats in Scotland; ending 51 years of dominance by Scottish Labour, and Whitefield was unsuccessful in being elected.
===Labour Leadership 2021 campaign=== Following the resignation of Scottish Labour leader [[Richard Leonard]], Whitefield chaired [[Anas Sarwar]]'s leadership campaign. Sarwar was subsequently voted in as the Leader of the Scottish Labour Party in 2021.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19032107.former-msp-chair-anas-sarwars-scottish-labour-leadership-bid/ |work=Herald Scotland|title=Former MSP to chair Anas Sarwar's Scottish Labour leadership bid |publisher=Herald Scotland |date=22 January 2021}}</ref>
==Personal life== After her defeat at the [[2011 Scottish Parliament election]], she subsequently became a campaign officer at [[USDAW]]. She is single and lives in the village of [[Glenmavis]].{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{SP-MSP}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120318131216/http://www.scottishlabour.org.uk/karen-whitefield Karen Whitefield ] profile at the site of Scottish Labour
{{s-start}} {{s-par|sct}} {{s-new|Parliament|reason=[[Scotland Act 1998]]}} {{s-ttl |title=[[Member of the Scottish Parliament]] for [[Airdrie and Shotts (Scottish Parliament constituency)|Airdrie and Shotts]] |years=[[1999 Scottish Parliament election|1999]]–[[2011 Scottish Parliament election|2011]] }} {{s-aft|after=[[Alex Neil (politician)|Alex Neil]]}} {{s-end}}
{{Former Labour MSPs|state=collapsed}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitefield, Karen}} [[Category:1970 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:People from Bellshill]] [[Category:Labour MSPs]] [[Category:Members of the Scottish Parliament 1999–2003]] [[Category:Members of the Scottish Parliament 2003–2007]] [[Category:Members of the Scottish Parliament 2007–2011]] [[Category:Female members of the Scottish Parliament]] [[Category:20th-century Scottish women politicians]] [[Category:Politicians from North Lanarkshire]]
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