Frances Curran

Frances Curran ( born May 21, 1961 in Glasgow ) is a Scottish politician and member of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP). Since 2007, she, together with Colin Fox, the party leadership.

Political career

After Curran became involved in various socialist organizations since 1983, she later joined the Labour Party. There they belonged to the left wing until they left the party and joined the Scottish Socialist Alliance ( SSA). After the Labour MPs in the British House of Commons, Gordon McMaster, shortly after the general election, committed suicide in 1997, new elections were recognized in his constituency Paisley South. These Curran went to the SSA. However, they received only 1.3% of the votes and missed so much a place in the House of Commons.

After the SSA in 1998 merged with other left-wing groups to the SSP, Curran went to for this in the first Scottish Parliament elections in 1999. However, they applied not to the direct mandate of a constituency, but was placed on the Regional Evaluation of the SSP for the constituency Glasgow in second place behind Tommy Sheridan. As a result of the election result, the SSP only received a mandate and Curran thus failed to reach the newly created Scottish Parliament. In 2001, she stepped up to the general election in the constituency again in Paisley South. Curran was able to increase to 2.7%, although their share of the vote, but this was not enough to win the direct mandate. In the Scottish Parliament elections in 2003 she applied for the direct mandate of the Scottish constituency of Paisley South and received 7.1 % of votes. As Curran, however, was also placed on the Regional Evaluation of the SSP for the election Region West of Scotland on the first rank, she received as a result of the election results, the only mandate of the SSP list in this constituency and moved for the first time in the Scottish Parliament. There she served as party spokesperson for businesses, housing, Europe and international relations, education and youth. Curran had a leading role in the organization of peaceful demonstrations outside the Gleneagles Hotel in the framework of the G8 summit in 2005. To draw attention to the lack of arrangements of Parliament to ensure the right to demonstrations, Curran bothered with some party colleagues the question time at Parliament. As a result, they were excluded along with three other SSP politicians for a month from the Parliament. Your monthly payments, as well as their employees were retained.

In 2006, she announced that for personal reasons in the elections in 2007 not to run. This was realized by the listing Curran on the hopeless fourth rank of the Regional Evaluation for West of Scotland. Along with her party colleague Colin Fox, it forms since 2007, the party leadership of the SSP. After the Labour MP of the House of Commons constituency of Glasgow East, David Marshall, elections were resigned in 2008 for health reasons in his constituency stated. In these, Curran applied for the direct mandate, but could unite only 2.1 % of the votes. In the Scottish Parliament elections in 2011 Curran was set to the first rank of the choice list for West Scotland, but received no mandate.