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Kenny MacAskill MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Justice
Incumbent
Assumed office  17th May, 2007
Preceded by	Cathy Jamieson (as Minister for Justice)
Succeeded by	Incumbent
Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh
Incumbent
Assumed office  3rd May 2007
Preceded by	Susan Deacon
Majority	1,382 (4.6%)
Born	April 28, 1958 (1958-04-28) (age 49)
Political party	Scottish National Party

Kenny MacAskill (born 28 April 1958) is an Scottish National Party politician, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Member of the Scottish Parliament for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh since 2007.

MacAskill was born in Edinburgh and was educated at Linlithgow Academy before studying law at the University of Edinburgh. Afterwards he worked as a solicitor and became a partner of his firm.

He came to prominence inside the SNP through his activities in the left-wing 79 Group and became a party office bearer. In the 1980s he led the SNP campaign in opposition to the Poll Tax "Can't Pay, Won't Pay". It was widely known that he often disagreed politically with Alex Salmond, leader of the SNP through the 1990s, and he was at one stage viewed as belonging to the SNP Fundamentalist camp, being perceived to be allied to figures such as Jim Sillars and Alex Neil within the party.

After MacAskill became on MSP in 1999 upon the establishment of the Scottish Parliament as regional list member for the Lothians he moderated his political position, seeing the development of the Scottish Parliament as the most achievable route for Scotland to become an Independent Nation-State. In this respect he was regarded as having adopted a gradualist approach to Scottish independence in place of his previous fundamentalist position. He was one of former SNP leader John Swinney's closest supporters.

In 2000 MacAskill was detained in London before the Euro 2000 second leg play-off match between Scotland and England on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly.^[1] As he was not charged with any crime the incident did not affect his position within the SNP and he was won re-election at the 2003 election.

In 2004, after John Swinney stood down as SNP party leader, Kenny MacAskill backed the joint leadership ticket of Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon. He had initially intended to stand for deputy leader himself on a joint ticket with Nicola Sturgeon, who would have sought the leadership. He gave way when Salmond reconsidered his earlier decision not to seek re-election to the leaders position. Upon their election as leader and depute leader respectively MacAskill was selected to be the SNP's depute leader in the Scottish Parliament, making him the shadow Deputy First Minister.

MacAskill authored a book, 'Building a Nation - Post Devolution Nationalism in Scotland', which was launched at the SNP's 2004 annual conference in Inverness. He has since edited another book 'Agenda for a New Scotland - Visions of Scotland 2020' and has co-authored 'Global Scots - Voices From Afar' with former First Minister Henry McLeish.

For the 2007 Scottish Parliament election MacAskill was top of the SNP's party list for the Lothians region. He stood in the Edinburgh East and Musselburgh constituency, winning that seat from the Scottish Labour Party with a 13.3% swing to give a majority of 1,382. After the SNP's victory at the 2007 Scottish Parliament Election, MacAskill was selected as the Cabinet Secretary for Justice.

One of MacAskill's first acts as a cabinet secretary was to lift the ban on alcohol sales at international rugby union games held at Murrayfield Stadium.^[2]

MacAskill also insists that the recent terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport was not committed by 'home-grown' terrorists.^[3]

• Kenny MacAskill MSP official site
• An independent Scotland hinges on its economy Kenny MacAskill's article in The Scotsman 2 June, 2005
• Kenny MacAskill MSP Scottish Parliament webpage
• Kenny MacAskill MSP biography at SNP website
• Kenny MacAskill MSP Scottish Government biography

v • d • e      Scottish Cabinet
Alex Salmond (First Minister) · Nicola Sturgeon (Deputy First Minister and Health and Wellbeing) · John Swinney (Finance and Sustainable Growth) Fiona Hyslop (Education and Lifelong Learning) · Kenny MacAskill (Justice) · Richard Lochhead (Rural Affairs and the Environment)

v • d • e Members of the Scottish Parliament in the Lothians region

Elected in the 2007 election Labour (5 seats), SNP (5 seats), Conservative (2 seats), Lib Dems, (2 seats), Greens (1 seat), Independent (1 seat) Constituency MSPs Sarah Boyack (Lab, Edinburgh Central) • Kenny MacAskill (SNP, Edinburgh East and Musselburgh) • Malcolm Chisholm (Lab, Edinburgh North and Leith) • David McLetchie (Con, Edinburgh Pentlands) • Mike Pringle (Lib Dem, Edinburgh South) • Margaret Smith (Lib Dem, Edinburgh West) • Mary Mulligan (Lab, Linlithgow) • Angela Constance (SNP, Livingston) • Rhona Brankin (Lab, Midlothian) Additional Members Gavin Brown (Con) • George Foulkes (Lab) • Robin Harper (Green) • Fiona Hyslop (SNP) • Margo MacDonald (Ind) • Ian McKee (SNP) • Shirley-Anne Somerville (SNP)