Michael Shanks named Scottish MP of the year at Holyrood’s political awards

Labour MP Michael Shanks has been named Scottish MP of the year at Holyrood’s inaugural political awards at Westminster.  

Shanks was honoured for being a “consistently impressive performer” since taking office 18 months ago, after winning the Rutherglen by-election, and beat Labour colleague Brian Leishman and political veteran Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael to take home the award.    

It was one of two accolades that Shanks picked up during the night, also receiving The Business of Politics gong for his work as energy minister, having led on key issues such as the Grangemouth negotiations.   

The event, part of Holyrood’s Showcasing Scotland at Westminster series of receptions, also saw SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn awarded the Speech of the Year award for his “stand out” interventions such as his WASPI speech earlier this year.    

Mandy Rhodes, managing director of Holyrood Communications and editor of Holyrood magazine, said: “We launched the Showcasing Scotland at Westminster series immediately after the general election last year as a way of introducing new MPs to businesses based in Scotland in an informal, informative and social way and it has been a huge success.”  

Other winners included Conservative MP Harriet Cross, who took home the One to Watch award, and Labour MP Brian Leishman, who was honoured with the Braveheart Award “for his dogged pursuit of action on Grangemouth”.   

Former Nato secretary general, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, George Robertson, was named Scottish Peer of the Year for his work on the strategic defence review.   

Rhodes added: “The awards are a recognition of what Scottish MPs do for Scotland and allowed us to celebrate all their efforts and have fun. Roll on next year.”