A trainee solicitor is bidding to become one of Parliament’s youngest MPs in the 2017 General Election.

Màiri McAllan is contesting Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale & Tweeddale for the Scottish National Party (SNP). The marginal seat is currently the only one held by the Conservatives in Scotland, with the incumbent, qualified solicitor and current Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell, holding off the SNP challenge by just 798 votes in 2015.

McAllan has a degree in Scots law from Glasgow University and began a training contract with a commercial firm in September 2016.

An active campaigner for Scottish independence during the 2014 referendum campaign, she has been praised by SNP leader as a “shining example of the talented young women” in the party.

Speaking to the Peeblesshire News, she said: “I am offering the people of Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale a strong voice and a clear choice. A choice between a future in which I ensure their voices are heard loud and clear in Westminster, and one where crucial decisions are made, behind closed doors, by a Tory government with its own dangerous agenda.

“This is a wonderful part of Scotland and I love living here. I would relish the opportunity to help our home reach its true potential and look forward to meeting as many people as possible on the campaign trail, over the next few weeks.”

 

Màiri McAllan is not the first trainee to stand for Parliament. In 2010, Addleshaw Goddard’s Jonathan Reynolds left the firm midway through this training contract after winning the Stalybridge and Hyde constituency for Labour with a majority of 2,700.

More recently, in 2015 a Hogan Lovells NQ, Fraser Galloway, stood unsuccessfully for the Conservatives in Paisley and Renfrewshire South.