Ian Blackford

Ian Blackford (born 14 May 1961) is a Scottish politician who served as Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) in the House of Commons from 2017 to 2022.

Blackford stood as the SNP candidate for the Ayr constituency at the 1997 general election, but finished in third place behind Sandra Osborne of the Labour Party.

Later during the same year, he stood as the Scottish National Party (SNP) candidate in the Paisley 1997 by-election but again he was unsuccessful; the contest had the lowest turnout at a by-election in Scotland for thirty years.

Blackford had been treasurer of the SNP and during this time he began to be viewed as a critic of the party leader, Alex Salmond.

He was the national treasurer of the SNP from 1999 to 2000.

After further integration into Deutsche Bank AG in 1999, Blackford ran Deutsche Bank's equity operations in Scotland and the Netherlands.

Blackford was removed from the post in 2000 via a vote of no confidence, after he had tried to impose financial controls to tackle the party's overdraft.

However, the limits for expenditure which he set were not adhered to.

Blackford's reputedly hard line over financial matters had led to a breakdown of trust between him and the national executive and at one point he even threatened to sue party leader, Alex Salmond, for defamation.

A profile in Holyrood magazine opined that, "Blackford's mistake was firstly, in underestimating the popularity of Salmond and the size of his power base and secondly, in committing the cardinal sin of washing the party's dirty washing in public and not keeping it 'within the family'."

Following 20 years in the financial industry, he left to do independent consultancy work, forming an investor relations company called First Seer in 2002.

In 2005, Blackford joined the Dutch food and biochemicals company CSM as an investor relations manager.

He was appointed non-executive chairman of the Edinburgh-based telecommunications firm Commsworld in 2006, having joined the board as a non-executive director in 2005.

He is a trustee at the Golden Charter Trust.

Following the 2007–2008 financial crisis, he made calls for Scotland to have its own financial regulator, to protect society from irresponsible practices.

Blackford has also suggested that a zero rate of capital gains tax could help Scotland to attract investment.

Under his chairmanship, support was secured for establishing a heritage centre in 2010.

He had also been a member of the FlySkye group, campaigning to bring commercial air services back to Skye.

In 2013, he helped explain the business case for not closing a primary school in Milngavie when East Dunbartonshire Council had proposed closure.

Following the electorate's decision to reject independence at the referendum on 18 September 2014, Blackford argued that Scotland should consider the constitutional change offered by the main unionist parties.

He was the author of a report which had explored options for the banking sector in Scotland, had the country voted to become independent.

He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ross, Skye and Lochaber since 2015.

Originally from Edinburgh, he previously worked as an investment banker and has been involved in various business ventures since.

In January 2015, it was announced that Blackford would be the SNP candidate for Ross, Skye and Lochaber at the 2015 general election.

The campaign attracted national attention because of its acrimony; Blackford objected to being called a "well-funded banker" and confronted incumbent MP Charles Kennedy in his office.

Liberal Democrats accused Blackford of dog whistling about Kennedy's struggles with alcoholism.

Leaflets were distributed telling voters "Why bottle it? Make a Change!", however, the SNP denied responsibility for their distribution and condemned them.

Former Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell labelled the campaign, "far and away the most despicable I encountered in all my years in UK politics."

However, Blackford said he was "proud" of the campaign and claimed there was "absolutely no issue" between himself and Kennedy before his death in June 2015.

He received 20,119 votes and 48.1% of the vote, defeating Kennedy by 5,124 votes.

Blackford became the SNP Westminster Leader after Angus Robertson lost his seat at the 2017 snap general election.

He stepped down from the role in December 2022 and was replaced by Stephen Flynn.

Blackford was born in Edinburgh and educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh.

Blackford worked as an analyst with NatWest Securities, before moving to a managerial role.

The company was bought by BT Alex. Brown, and Blackford was a managing director.

His opinion of Salmond mellowed after his election to Westminster and in August 2018 he said: "I don't hate Alex. He has been instrumental in getting us to where we are today... So we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Alex."

Blackford has argued for better telecommunication infrastructure for rural areas, noting that video-conferencing is one way of overcoming travel time and in the absence of air links.

Blackford was the chairman of Commsworld plc, a telecoms company, until 2019.

The sale of the business to Lloyds Development Capital at this time is reported to have made Blackford a seven-figure sum.

He was previously the chairman of the Glendale Trust, an organisation responsible for a community-owned estate on Skye, which made an approach to Highland Council to bring a historic pier under community control.