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Michael Marra (politician)
Michael James Marra is a Scottish Labour politician who has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for North East Scotland since May 2021. Early lifeMichael Marra was born in Dundee in 1979. He joined the Labour Party as a teenager.[1] Marra was educated at St John's High School, the University of Glasgow and the London School of Economics.[1] Before becoming an MSP, Marra worked for Oxfam and the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Dundee.[2] Political careerMichael Marra was elected as a councillor in Dundee's Lochee ward in 2017.[3] He stood down at the 2022 Scottish Parliament election. Marra previously worked for Scottish Labour Leader Iain Gray as an advisor prior to and during the 2011 Scottish Parliamentary election.[2] In the 2015 United Kingdom general election, he contested Dundee West but lost to Chris Law from the SNP. In November 2020, Marra was confirmed as a candidate on Labour's regional list for the North East, coinciding with his sister Jenny Marra announcing that she would not seek re-election to the Scottish Parliament.[4] On 8 May 2021 Marra was elected as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for North East Scotland.[5] He had been appointed as Education and Skills spokesperson in Scottish Labour's campaign cabinet just before the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections.[6] He was retained as Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills after the election. [7] He has described himself as being part of Labour's "soft left".[8] In 2021 Michael Marra won the Holyrood magazine “One For The Watching” award, a newcomer award judged by a panel made up of senior MSPs, journalists, and Scotland’s two top pollsters.[8] In April 2023 it was announced he would take on the role of Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance [9] Marra backed the UK Government’s decision to introduce means-testing for the Winter Fuel Payment, voting in the Scottish Parliament against calls to reverse the decision.[10] Injury Time campaignSince 2021, Marra has been campaigning for Alzheimer's disease in footballers to be classed as an industrial disease. A study carried out for the Football Association and the Professional Footballers’ Association in 2019 discovered that there was a five-fold increase in Alzheimer’s disease among the former players.[11] Marra had said: “The Scottish Government must recognise that these injuries are a form of industrial disease and allow these players to access the support they need, and deserve.” Personal lifeMichael Marra is married and has three children.[1] He is a lifelong Dundee United supporter.[12] His uncle is the Dundonian folk singer Michael Marra,[8] who died in 2012. Michael Marra has an interest in the history and writings of Abraham Lincoln.[13] References
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