Johann Lamont

Johann MacDougall Lamont (born 11 July 1957) is a Scottish Labour Co-operative politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2011 to 2014.

Johann MacDougall Lamont was born in the Anderston district of Glasgow on 11 July 1957.

Her parents, Archie and Effie, were both Gaelic speakers from crofting families on the Inner Hebridean island of Tiree, who met after both had moved to Glasgow.

Archie was a carpenter employed by the Scottish ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne, working on the Mallaig to Skye route.

He took part in the Seamen's Strike of 1966.

The family were Presbyterians, and Lamont's mother was influenced in her faith by the American evangelist Billy Graham.

Her first experiences of public speakers was listening to the preachers her mother took her to see as a girl.

Lamont's childhood was divided between Glasgow and her mother's family home on Tiree, where she and her brother David spent their summer holidays.

She attended Woodside Secondary School, having declined to take scholarship exams for selective education.

Like her parents, she was a Gaelic speaker, but she did not believe she spoke it well enough, and she dropped it at school in favour of French and German.

It was also at school that she first developed an interest in politics, once entering a Daily Mirror competition with a politically-themed short story.

The tale, whose central character discussed her intention to demand a pay rise and was finally revealed to be the Queen, won Lamont third prize.

She studied English and History at the University of Glasgow, graduating with an MA.

Joining the Labour Party in 1975, she was active in Glasgow University Labour Club where she was a contemporary of fellow Labour politician Margaret Curran, and was also involved with the women's movement.

She trained as a teacher for a year at Jordanhill College, gaining a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, and afterwards joined Rothesay Academy, as a teacher in 1979.

Although she had voted no in the 1979 referendum that proposed the establishment of a Scottish Assembly, during the 1980s and 1990s she was a representative on the Scottish Constitutional Convention, the body that paved the way for Scottish devolution.

Of her 1979 decision, Lamont has said that she "came from the strand on the left which saw the politics of nationalism as a diversion from more central aims [but later] came to see the parliament as a vehicle for democratic change in Scotland."

She taught at Springburn Academy in Glasgow from 1982 to 1989 and at Castlemilk High School, also in Glasgow, from 1990 to 1999.

Lamont taught English and worked with social workers and educational psychologists attempting to tackle instances of school truancy.

Continuing to be active in the Labour Party, Lamont became a prominent campaigner on issues related to social justice, equality and devolution.

Active in the Labour Party since she was at university, Lamont served on its Scottish Executive Committee, and chaired it in 1993.

She was a member of the Scottish Executive Committee of the Labour Party, serving as chair in 1993.

The parliament was established as a result of the 1997 referendum that saw a 74% vote in favour of devolving legislative powers to Scotland.

With the establishment of a devolved legislature in Scotland, she was elected as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Glasgow Pollok in 1999.

Having been appointed convener of the Scottish Parliament's Social Justice Committee in 2001, she obtained her first ministerial role in a Labour–Liberal Democrat coalition in October 2004 and served until its defeat by the Scottish National Party (SNP) in 2007.

She was previously a junior Scottish Executive minister from 2004 to 2007 and Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2008 until her election to the leadership in 2011.

In addition to her ministerial and leadership roles, she has been a campaigner on equality issues and violence against women throughout her political career.

Born in Glasgow, Lamont attended Woodside Secondary School and obtained a degree from the University of Glasgow.

After studying for teaching qualifications at Jordanhill College, she became a schoolteacher.

Lamont stood for the Scottish Labour leadership following the resignation of Iain Gray in the wake of the party's defeat at the 2011 Scottish Parliament election; its second consecutive defeat.

Following a review of how the Labour Party in Scotland would be structured, she became its first overall leader.

She stated Labour lost the 2011 election because it had lost direction, and initiated a review of Scottish Labour policy on issues like devolution and the party's commitment to free universal public services.

Following the SNP Government's announcement of a referendum on Scottish independence, she was a key figure in the Better Together campaign; a cross-party movement that sought to keep Scotland part of the United Kingdom.

Speaking to The Herald in 2011, she said, "It is easy to forget what a great opportunity it was for women and I was determined that women would be represented, would have a strong voice."

Lamont's work as Scottish Labour leader won her accolades at the Scottish Politician of the Year Awards, for Political Impact of the Year in 2012 and Debater of the Year in 2013.

In parliamentary debates, she was perceived by commentators such as The Scotsman's Andrew Whitaker as being an effective opponent to First Minister Alex Salmond, but others, including Richard Seymour of The Guardian, criticised her for clumsiness during television interviews.

She resigned as Scottish Labour leader in October 2014, making the announcement in a Daily Record interview in which she claimed that senior figures within the UK Labour Party had undermined her attempts to reform the Scottish party, and treated it "like a branch office of London".

Following a leadership election to replace her, she was succeeded in December 2014 by former Secretary of State for Scotland Jim Murphy.

Although a Labour activist for two decades, Lamont had not sought election to the House of Commons during that time, telling a 2014 BBC interview there were few chances for women to be elected to Westminster: "In 1987 Labour sent down 50 MPs and only one of them was a woman."

Instead, her decision to seek political office was influenced by the creation of the Scottish Parliament.