Kirsten Oswald was first elected as the SNP MP for East Renfrewshire in 2015, before losing the seat in 2017. She was reelected in 2019 with a majority of 5,426.
The constituency of East Renfrewshire, formerly known as Eastwood, is found to the south of Glasgow. Stretching out from the outer suburbs of Glasgow, this seat also contains some rural villages. A commuter area for the city of Glasgow, this is an affluent area in which owner occupancy is high. This seat contains the largest Jewish community in Scotland.
This area was once the safest Conservative seat in Scotland and was held by the party between 1945 and 1997. The seat was then held by the Labour Cabinet Minister Jim Murphy between 1997 and 2015, before being gained by the SNP in their landslide year of 2015. The Conservatives briefly gained the seat back in 2017 with a majority of 4,712, but in an indication of the electoral volatility in this area, the SNP gained it back comfortably by 5,426 votes in 2019.
Kirsten Oswald was previously the Deputy Leader of the SNP in the House of Commons.
Between 2015 and 2017, Oswald was the SNP Spokesperson for the Armed Forces and Veterans. She was the Chair of the SNP in 2018.
Oswald was born in Dundee in 1972. She grew up in Carnoustie, attending Carlogie Primary and Carnoustie High Schools. She has a degree in History from the University of Glasgow. Before being elected to Westminster, she worked as Head of Human Resources as Lanarkshire College for 12 years.
In 2021, she revealed in the House of Commons how she had previously been diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).
Kirsten Oswald is Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Yemen; Antisemitism; British Muslims; British Sikhs; the Future of Work; Hate Crime; Management; and Women and Work.
Email: kirsten.oswald.mp@parliament.uk
Personal Website: http://www.snp.org/people/kirsten-oswald
Twitter: twitter.com/kirstenoswald
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/KirstenOswaldEastRenfrewshire
