Meet Lothian's new MPs: Kirsty McNeill, Labour MP for Midlothian

Former Downing Street adviser Kirsty McNeill, now the new MP for Midlothian, is seen as a rising star in Labour.

Born in Glasgow, she grew up in an SNP-supporting family and  has described early memories of being "plonked under tables at meetings and being told to fold leaflets, being sent to race nights, to staff tombola stalls". 

New Midlothian Labour MP Kirsty McNeill grew up in an SNP-supporting family | supplied

She says it was as a teenager that she developed strong opinions about poverty and inequality and saw social class as being more important than independence.

She studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Oxford University, where she was president of the Student Union.

After working in the charity sector for some years she spent three years as an adviser to Gordon Brown while he was in Number 10, working on his response to the financial crash, writing speeches and helping with outreach to communities.

After Labour's defeat in the 2010 general election, she spent a further year helping Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah setting up their office and establishing his global education projects.

Ms McNeill had stood unsuccessfully for Labour in the London constituency of Southwark North and Bermondsey at the 2005 general election and served as a Labour councillor in Southwark between 2006 and 2010.

She took a senior post with Save the Children in 2015 and has been the charity's executive director of policy, advocacy and campaigns for the past eight years.

She is also chair of the advisory board for Our Scottish Future, the think tank set up by Gordon Brown to present the positive and progressive case for Scotland's place in the UK. 

Meet all the new Edinburgh and Lothian MPs