He started work at the age of nine in his dad’s machine shop in Central Scotland and has been involved in small business ever since.

Full statement

Now a professional manufacturing engineer holding the degree of Master of Science, he has successfully solved problems as a freelance management consultant in more than forty organisations in seven European countries, covering over a dozen industries including manufacturing, banking and finance, the Civil Service and the NHS.

A resident of Moffat for the past ten years, he has been very happily married for thirty-nine years and his two daughters (a teacher and a nurse) live and work not far away. Although he has lived in many areas of the UK and Europe, his home has always been in rural Scotland so he well understands the problems of country living.

He is incredibly proud and grateful to have been born in Scotland to enterprising, hard-working parents, and of having been brought up and educated in a small village and a small town. This upbringing has given him a very grounded outlook on life, valuing hard work, education and personal ambition highly. It has also given him a very sceptical view of life, which has served him well professionally and also means that any opinion he holds is based on thorough analysis. He is not easily swayed by popular opinion and will speak out when things need to change.

As a founder member of Reform UK Scotland, he has been working hard since 2020 to build the party’s presence here, with considerable success. After several years as a member of Moffat and District Community Council, he is looking forward to stepping up and changing Scotland for the better through working in the Scottish Parliament.