Scottish politician

Anna Anderson McCurley (née Gemmell; born 18 January 1943) is a Scottish politician.

Career

McCurley, a teacher by vocation, served as a councillor on Strathclyde Regional Council 1978–82. McCurley contested West Stirlingshire in 1979 and Glasgow Central in a 1980 by-election. After the death of Tam Galbraith, the long-serving Conservative MP for Glasgow Hillhead, The Glasgow Herald reported that McCurley's name was being spoken about as a possible Conservative candidate to contest the by-election to elect his successor. However, the Conservatives ultimately ran Gerry Malone, who lost to Roy Jenkins of the Social Democratic Party.

She was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament for the newly created seat of Renfrew West and Inverclyde at the landslide of 1983 after a close three-way contest. She had a majority of 1,322 votes over the SDP's Dickson Mabon who finished second, with Labour's candidate finishing only 208 votes behind Mabon. Mabon had been Labour MP for the Greenock and Port Glasgow since 1974 (and prior to that its predecessor seat Greenock from 1955), until joining the SDP in 1981, but the Liberal Party had pushed for one of their members to contest that seat for the Alliance.

She lost the seat to Labour candidate Tommy Graham in 1987. During her time in Parliament, she was described by The Scotsman newspaper as outspoken and formidable, and praised by her successor for her political independence and interest in her cons*uents. She contested the Chairmanship of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist *ociation, the party's voluntary wing, in 1989 losing to Sir Michael Hirst, the former MP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, with whom she publicly opposed the parliamentary candidature of following a long rivalry.

In 1997, she attempted to become the Conservative parliamentary candidate for the Eastwood cons*uency, but failed to make it to the shortlist stage, with Paul Cullen eventually taking the candidature. She explained her defeat by suggesting her "views are more traditional Conservative than modern Conservative".

McCurley joined the Scottish Liberal Democrats in 1998 and stood as a candidate in the 1999 elections to the Scottish Parliament for Eastwood.

References

Other sources

• Times Guide to the House of Commons 1983
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages