I am from a family farming background in the Scottish Borders. The hill farm raises prime Cheviot sheep and quality cattle. The farming business diversified in the late 1990s and is now managed by my two sons, Callum and Duncan. I was educated at the predecessor to SRUC, gaining a Diploma in Agriculture, later gaining an MBA at the University of Edinburgh.
I have twice been Director of NFU Scotland, firstly as their Lothian and Borders’ President and then as their Environment and Land Use Chairman. I always believed in engaging with wider society and was a trustee with Borders Forest Trust, Chair of the Borders’ Foundation for Rural Sustainability, member of the Forestry Commission’s South Scotland Forum, Director of Scottish Enterprise Borders, Chair of Scottish Enterprise’s Land Based Advisory Group and Founding Director of the South of Scotland Loan Fund Scheme. This work included me organising day to day help for individuals during the Foot & Mouth crisis of 2001 and feeding into the Scottish Government’s post Foot & Mouth recovery plan.
In 2007 I was elected to the Scottish Parliament, where I served as an MSP for South Scotland for nine years. During that time I served on the Public Audit Committee, the European & External Relations Committee and five years on the Parliament’s Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee, holding the role as the European rapporteur. I also Co-convened the Cross Party Groups on Rural Policy, Palestine and Food and was one of four MSPs from 2011 to 2016 to be elected as a Member of the European Committee of Regions.
In late 2015 I succeeded in gaining support for my Scottish Parliamentary Member’s Bill, the Smoking Prohibition (Children in Motor Vehicles) (Scotland) Bill, which now protects by law the 60,000 children in Scotland that were being exposed to second-hand smoke in cars. I also gave evidence from my Members’ Bill to Westminster, who have brought in a similar law. My Member’s Bill received Royal Assent and was enacted in 2016.
Since 2016 I have created and convene the National Rural Mental Health Forum, a group of organisations from all sectors tackling mental health and wellbeing in rural UK. I am the Director of Public Affairs and Communications at Support in Mind Scotland. I am also an Associate of the Royal Agricultural Societies and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Farmers, chairing their Health and Wellbeing Forum.