Francis McAveety (born 27 July 1962) is a Scottish Labour Party politician who served as Leader of Glasgow City Council from 2015 to 2017. He has been a councillor for the Shettleston ward of Glasgow. He was previously the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow Shettleston constituency from 1999 to 2011. He has written in praise of David Bowie in the Scotsman newspaper and he wrote a regular feature for Holyrood Magazine, which celebrated and recommended his favourite albums. In April 2005, the Scotsman newspaper dubbed him the "Daddy of Parliamentary Pop". This was in reference to his speech in the Parliamentary Chamber in support of a motion recognising Franz Ferdinand for that band's contribution to Scottish popular music and culture.
McAveety has served as a board member for the Arches Theatre Company in Glasgow, Enterprise Scotland and the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre. From January 2009 he served on the boards of the Scottish Youth Theatre and Fields in Trust Scotland (formerly National Playing Fields Association).
In the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, he lost his seat to the SNP's John Mason but he made an early return to politics in May 2012, when he was elected as a Councillor for the Shettleston ward of Glasgow City Council.
On 10 September 2015, McAveety was elected leader of Glasgow City Council after Gordon Matheson stood down, thus returning to a post he had held sixteen years earlier. He was succeeded by Susan Aitken on 4 May 2017.
On 15 April 2025, McAveety was arrested and charged with electoral fraud relating to the 2022 council election.
See also
- List of Scottish Executive Ministerial Teams
References
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