Michael Shanks

Michael Graeme Shanks (born ) is a Scottish Labour politician. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Rutherglen and Hamilton West since winning a by-election on 5 October 2023. Political career Shanks was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2012 Glasgow City Council election, standing for Scottish Labour in the ward of Partick West and finishing fifth in the single transferable vote process. Four councillors were elected for the ward, making Shanks the only Labour Party candidate in Glasgow not to be elected. He contested the Glasgow Kelvin constituency in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election, coming third, and the Glasgow North West constituency at the 2017 general election, coming second. Shanks resigned from the Labour Party on the day of the 2019 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom, citing Brexit and antisemitism in the party, but re-joined when Keir Starmer became leader. Having moved to Rutherglen from western Glasgow a year earlier, he was selected to contest the Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency in May 2023, in anticipation that Margaret Ferrier, the incumbent MP who had been sanctioned for breaches of COVID-19 restrictions, would lose her seat via a recall petition. Following her suspension from the House of Commons, Ferrier was unseated by a successful recall petition on 1 August. In the subsequent by-election on 5 October, Labour overturned the previous 9.7% Scottish National Party (SNP) majority to win with a majority of 31% and a swing of 24%, with 58.6% of the vote share. Political views Shanks is reported as saying he: "wasn't 'against' rejoining the EU and insisted he hadn't changed his principles over Brexit but that now was not the right time for a debate on the issue". During his by-election campaign Shanks said he would vote to abolish the two-child benefit cap. He supported the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill but said that "it could be much, much better".