Owen Thompson


Owen George Thompson is a Scottish National Party politician. He was elected in 2015 as the Member of Parliament for Midlothian, but was defeated at the next general election in 2017. He regained the seat at the 2019 general election.

Early life

Thompson was brought up in Loanhead after moving there when he was seven. He studied Accounting and Finance at Edinburgh Napier University.

Political career

Thompson had previously been the leader of Midlothian Council. He was first elected to the council in the Loanhead by-election 2005. At the age of 27, he was Scotland's youngest councillor at the time. He was then re-elected in the 2007 council election and again in the 2012 council election. He became leader of the council in November 2013, succeeding his party colleague Bob Constable.
In December 2014, the Bonnyrigg, Loanhead and District SNP branch nominated Thompson to be the party's official candidate at the 2015 general election. He was elected as the MP for Midlothian with 24,453 votes, a 50.6% share of the votes cast. He was sworn into office at Westminster on 20 May 2015, and on that same day was given a position in the SNP Whips Office under SNP Chief Whip, Mike Weir.
Thompson narrowly lost his seat at the 2017 general election to Danielle Rowley of the Labour Party by 885 votes, receiving 34.4% of the overall vote share compared to 36.4% for Rowley. However, two years later at the 2019 election he regained the constituency, taking a 41.5% vote share and a majority of 5,705.