CIVIL engineer Alan Brown ended Labour’s 80-year reign in Kilmarnock and Loudoun with an astounding majority of
13,638 seats over his high-profile rival Cathy Jamieson.
The 44-year-old admitted he was nervous taking on Labour’s former Shadow Treasury Minister but insisted a national mood change in Scotland underpinned his campaign and secured him 30,000 votes with a 29.7 per cent swing in the
General Election.
Brown, who is married to Cyndi and has sons Kyle, 18, and Dylan, 16, has been the local councillor for the Irvine Valley since 2007, but plans to quit to concentrate fully on his new role as an MP.
He joined the SNP in 1994 because he believed Scotland should be an independent country,
and firmly believes that the people of Scotland could make better decisions on how Scotland should be managed and run.
After graduating from Glasgow University with an honours degree in civil engineering, he worked in the industry for 21 years in the public and private sector before giving up his job recently to become an MP.
Brown said
: “It felt strange quitting my job but because I took a sabbatical to concentrate on the campaign so it feels like I quit a while ago. It feels natural now.”
Brown admitted taking on such a high-profile MP as Cathy Jamieson made him nervous. He added: “It was a fantastic swing. Cathy Jamieson held a lot of respect because she had been an MSP from 1999 and served in the Scottish Government and spent five years as an MP. She had a high profile and a shadow financial position within the Labour party so I always knew it would be a big ask.
“Ultimately, you always have the fear of losing at the back of your mind so that made me nervous. I knew it would be hard but I really wanted it, so I tried to be positive.”
Brown said being a local councillor helped.
He added: “I was able to talk to people about what the local council has done under an SNP administration which I have been part of in terms of delivering a large capital programme, re-investment, particularly in Kilmarnock, but also council houses that are getting built right across the constituency.
“People felt that the Labour party no longer stood for the beliefs they once had and the post-referendum change. That came through loud and clear, and although Cathy Jamieson was also respected as an MP and somebody that would work for her constituents, she was also a member of the Labour Party and she was part of the Labour Party machine.”
Brown said he was excited about the new blood at Westminster.
He went on:
“I read recently somewhere that there was a bit of criticism saying that too many of the SNP MPs had a professional background, but a lot of them are like myself who have come from a traditional working class family.
“We might have a professional qualifications but we’ve got similar backgrounds to the constituents we represent.”
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