Rhoda Grant


Rhoda Grant is a Scottish Labour and Co-operative Party politician, and Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Highlands and Islands region from 1999 to 2003 and since 2007.

Early life and career

Grant was born in 1963 in Stornoway, Outer Hebrides and studied for a degree in social sciences from the Open University. Prior to her election, Grant worked for the trade union UNISON and Highland Regional Council.

Political career

In the 1999 Scottish Parliament election, Grant was elected to a list seat for the Highlands and Islands region. In the 2003 election, she fought the Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber constituency but came second to Fergus Ewing of the Scottish National Party, who held the seat by 1,000 votes. In that election, she also lost her regional list seat.
In the 2007 election, Grant was again elected as a regional list MSP for Highlands and Islands, as the Scottish Green Party's vote share collapsed and Labour won three list seats, and she was re-elected in the 2011 election.
Grant was appointed Scottish Labour's Women and Equality Spokesperson by new leader Richard Leonard on 19 November 2017, and was also its Business Manager between 19 November 2017 and 4 October 2018, when she was succeeded by Neil Findlay. She became Deputy Finance Spokesperson on 2 September 2019.

Political positions and views

Grant thinks that there is a significant connection between pornography and the sex industry and "abuse and violence against women". "We have to ask if more should be done to make the viewing or downloading of porn from the internet more difficult. I think there should be filters in place to help that process."