68 Facts About Johann Lamont

Johann MacDougall Lamont is a Scottish Labour Co-operative politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2011 to 2014.

Johann Lamont 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.

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

Johann 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.

Johann Lamont 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.

Johann Lamont 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".

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

Johann Lamont took part in the Seamen's Strike of 1966.

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

Johann 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.

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

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

Johann Lamont 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.

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

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

Johann Lamont was first elected as the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Pollok in 1999.

Johann Lamont held the seat in 2003, when she faced a strong challenge from the Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan, and then again in 2007 and 2011.

Johann Lamont served on a number of the Parliament's committees during her first term in office, including the Equal Opportunities Committee, the Local Government Committee and the Social Justice Committee.

Johann Lamont became convener of the Social Justice Committee in 2001.

Johann Lamont was appointed convener of the Communities Committee in 2003.

In November 2006, Johann Lamont was appointed Deputy Minister for Justice and oversaw reforms to Scotland's Lower Courts system.

Johann Lamont held the post until Labour was defeated at the 2007 election.

Johann Lamont was elected as deputy leader in September 2008 with 60.16 per cent of the vote, against 39.82 per cent for Butler.

Johann Lamont declared her candidacy for the leadership election in September 2011 and launched her campaign on 7 November at Stirling University.

Johann Lamont suggested increasing government help to tackle unemployment among young people, and wanted to nationalise rail and bus services.

Johann Lamont won majorities in two groups of Labour's three-tier electoral college system, securing the support of parliamentarians and affiliated bodies such as trade unions.

Johann Lamont began appointing members of her shadow cabinet on 19 December 2011.

Johann Lamont announced a major shakeup of the Labour frontbench team on 28 June 2013.

Johann Lamont gave her first post-election interview to The Politics Show Scotland on 18 December 2011, speaking of the "huge challenge" of rebuilding public trust in Scottish Labour after its election defeat of the previous May, and a general decline in support over the preceding decade.

Johann Lamont gave her first conference speech as party leader at Scottish Labour's conference in March 2012, setting out an agenda for rebuilding confidence in the party.

Johann Lamont launched Labour's 2012 local election campaign in Edinburgh on 17 April 2012, setting out policies for creating employment and training opportunities as well as improvements to education and childcare.

Johann Lamont said that the result reflected "the progress we've made", but Curtice said that if the results were repeated across Scotland, the SNP would still be the majority party at the next election.

Johann Lamont was a prominent figure in the Better Together Campaign, the cross-party political movement founded to keep Scotland as part of the United Kingdom following the SNP's announcement of a referendum on Scottish independence in 2014.

Johann Lamont was outspoken in her opposition to Scottish independence, using a keynote speech at UK Labour's 2013 conference in Brighton to accuse the SNP of nurturing hostility between Scotland and the rest of the UK, and describing nationalism as a "virus that has affected so many nations and done so much harm".

Johann Lamont is in favour of greater devolved powers for the Scottish Parliament, and established a Commission to look at how this can be achieved.

Johann Lamont told Scottish Labour's 2012 annual conference she wanted her party's campaign to be one of "collective leadership" against independence, a strategy which she envisaged would become a cross-party movement arguing the case for keeping Scotland in the UK.

Johann Lamont dismissed it as "670 pages of assertion and uncertainty".

Johann Lamont joined Ruth Davidson and Willie Rennie in giving her backing to the proposals the following day, but Salmond dismissed them as "a retreading, a repackaging, a re-timetabling" of previous promises.

Johann Lamont paid tribute to him, describing him as "an immense figure in Scottish political history".

At the Scottish Labour Party Conference in March 2012, Johann Lamont announced her intention to establish a Commission to examine the prospect of a fully devolved Scottish Parliament.

The Commission, chaired by Johann Lamont and including politicians, academics and trade union members, met for the first time in October 2012.

Johann Lamont described the proposals as "the right balance between fiscal accountability and insuring us against risk".

In September 2012, Johann Lamont announced a policy review of Scotland's universal benefits, signalling that a future Labour administration would reverse many of the free services introduced since power was devolved to Scotland.

Johann Lamont returned to the issue of universal tuition fees again in a speech in Glasgow on 17 December 2012 to mark the first anniversary of her election as Labour leader.

Johann Lamont suggested that the Graduate Endowment, a system abolished by the SNP Government, could be reinstated if Labour were re-elected at the next Scottish parliamentary election.

In October 2013 Johann Lamont faced criticism for her reaction to an industrial dispute at the Grangemouth Oil Refinery.

Johann Lamont mothballed the plant, threatening to close it if the terms were not accepted.

Johann Lamont urged Ineos to withdraw its conditions and for both sides to hold talks, while Salmond tried to negotiate an agreement.

Johann Lamont had attempted to quash rumours of a leadership challenge at the 25 September 2014 session of First Minister's Questions, the first of the post-referendum era.

Johann Lamont was angry that she had not been consulted on some matters, such as a decision by the UK leadership to replace Ian Price as Scottish Labour's General Secretary.

Johann Lamont did not vote for Murphy in the election, but instead chose to back his rivals.

Ian Davidson claimed that supporters of Murphy, who subsequently announced his intention to stand in the leadership contest to succeed Johann Lamont, had conducted a whispering campaign against her.

Johann Lamont further suggested that those on the right of the party had resented her election as leader and ignored her, treating her as a "wee lassie".

Johann Lamont lost her Glasgow Pollok seat to the SNP's Humza Yousaf, who secured it with a majority of 6,484, but she was one of four Labour candidates elected to the Glasgow regional list, where she was joined by Sarwar, James Kelly and Pauline McNeill.

In November 2016, Johann Lamont was announced as a member of the Commission on Parliamentary Reform, having been nominated to represent Scottish Labour.

In May 2018, Johann Lamont was selected as Scottish Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for the Glasgow South UK Parliament constituency.

Johann Lamont contested the seat at the snap general election in December 2019 but was defeated by McDonald, whose majority increased to 9,005 over Labour.

Johann Lamont nominated Anas Sarwar in the 2021 Scottish Labour leadership election.

Johann Lamont subsequently stood down from Parliament at the 2021 election.

Johann Lamont's politics were heavily influenced by her inner city upbringing and her career in teaching.

Johann Lamont played a prominent role in the Better Together campaign that successfully persuaded Scots to vote to keep the Union in 2014.

Johann Lamont has said that Labour lost the 2011 Scottish Parliament election because the party lost its direction, and that having failed to recognise the 2007 result as a defeat, it picked up the wrong signals from the 2010 general election that saw a strong Scottish Labour vote at Westminster.

At the 2014 Scottish Trades Union Congress annual conference, Johann Lamont outlined plans to establish a Workers' Charter, saying she would work with the SNP government to achieve this.

Johann Lamont is a signatory of the Labour Women's Declaration, which originated amongst Labour members but is not affiliated with it.

Johann Lamont was nominated for Politician of the Year at the same ceremony, but beaten by Deputy First Minister Sturgeon.

Johann Lamont is married to Archie Graham, a member of Glasgow City Council as a Labour councillor for Langside ward.

Johann Lamont's nephew, Domhnall MacLaomainn, is a journalist with BBC Gaidhlig.

Johann Lamont is a fan of the television soap Coronation Street and likes to keep fit by walking, jogging and dancing.