Thewliss attended Carluke High School and studied Politics and International Relations at the University of Aberdeen. Thewliss was inspired to join the SNP at the age of seventeen following the 1997 Scottish devolution referendum. She was too young to vote in the referendum, but carried out an exit poll at a polling station as part of a Modern Studies project, which brought her into contact with representatives from Scottish political parties. Whilst still a student, she became involved in canvassing for the SNP at the 2003 Scottish Parliament election. A few months later, she was employed as a researcher for Bruce McFee MSP. By the time McFee had decided not to seek re-election in 2007, the party was looking for local election candidates. Thewliss agreed to stand for the Calton ward at the 2007 Glasgow City Council election which used a new multi-member ward system, and was one of 19 SNP candidates who gained seats previously held by Scottish Labour councillors under the previous single-member system. She was re-elected in 2012, but stood down as a councillor after being elected as MP for Glasgow Central at the 2015 general election.
Thewliss has campaigned on the issue of the government's revised tax credit policy restricting new claimants to two children from 2017, a policy which was introduced by then chancellor George Osborne in his July 2015 budget. She said shortly afterwards that the budget measure was "incredibly distasteful" as women who had been Raped would need to justify their case when the child was their third. A requirement from April 2017 is for an explanation, tagged a "rape clause", of a woman's "exceptional circumstances" in such cases. Thewliss, who had intervened nine times in the Commons on the issue by January 2016, was among those who launched a poster campaign in Glasgow that month for the government to abandon the proposal. How women could claim was still unclear the month before the measure was introduced. Via parliamentary questions, Thewliss had found that the training of a "professional third party" was still not arranged. It had been recommended in a 2016 Department for Work and Pensions consultation document. Her request for an emergency parliamentary debate on the issue was rejected in March 2017. As the policy came into force, she wrote of the women affected and government officials: "Will they accept her word, or will only a criminal conviction do? We don't yet know".
Personal life
Alison Thewliss is married to a software developer. The couple had a son in 2010 and a daughter in 2013.
