Danielle Rowley

Danielle Rowley (born 25 February 1990) is a Scottish Labour Party politician. She was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Midlothian at the 2017 snap general election.

Early life and education
Danielle Rowley was born on 25 February 1990 and grew up in a council estate in Dalkeith. Her father is Scottish Labour Party politician Alex Rowley and her late mother was a trade unionist. Both her grandfathers were Labour Party activists and miners. Her early education was at Dalkeith High School. She graduated from the Edinburgh Napier University with a journalism degree in 2014. Rowley supported Scotland remaining within the United Kingdom in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and worked as former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's constituency media manager during the campaign.

Before her election as MP, Rowley worked as the Campaigns and Public Relations Officer for housing charity Shelter Scotland and was also a member of the Scottish Youth Parliament.

Parliamentary career
Rowley was selected in April to be the Scottish Labour candidate for the Midlothian constituency in the 2017 general election. She went on to be elected as MP for the seat with a majority of 885 over incumbent Scottish National Party (SNP) MP Owen Thompson. Rowley was the first woman to represent Midlothian as MP. In her maiden speech in July 2017, she commented that she would fight to reduce the need of food banks in her constituency. Shortly after her election, Rowley was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry.

She chaired Richard Leonard's successful 2017 campaign to become Scottish Labour Party leader. Since September 2017, Rowley has been a member of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee.