Alison Johnstone

Alison Johnstone was elected for the third time as Green MSP for Lothian in May 2021.

Since the election she has been elected to the post of Parliament Presiding Officer and, as normal, she has suspended her Green membership while in that post. She still continues to represent the people of Lothian.

Alison has represented Lothian region since 2011. She was previously councillor for City of Edinburgh Council for the Meadows/Morningside ward.

Alison is from Edinburgh and lives in the south west of the city. A former East of Scotland 800m and 1500m title holder, Alison is a qualified athletics coach and Board member of Scottish Athletics.

During her time at Holyrood, Alison has held the government to account on social justice, land reform, climate change, pollution, nuclear disarmament and cleaner transport.

She has pioneered the right of fans to buy their football clubs, made warm homes a National Infrastructure Priority, pursued a permanent ban on fracking and coal gasification, and worked to increase powers for Scotland through the Devolution Committee.

Since 2016, her advocacy for a compassionate social security system has led to benefit sanctions not being applied to devolved employment schemes and boosted family incomes by securing a roll out of the Healthier, Wealthier Children programme; she secured an amendment to the Social Security Act to ensure that unnecessary face-to-face assessments will not be required to access disability benefits when these are devolved to the Scottish Parliament.

Alison has brought forward proposals to close loopholes in fox hunting legislation. And in 2020, following huge public support, the Scottish Government agreed to back Alison’s amendment to the Wildlife Bill, ensuring protection for Scotland’s iconic mountain hares.

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