Michael Marra | |
|---|---|
 Swearing in, 2021 | |
| Member of the Scottish Parliament for North East Scotland (1 of 7 Regional MSPs) | |
| Assumed office 8 May 2021 | |
| Scottish Labour Portfolios | |
| May 2021 - April 2023 | Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills |
| April 2023 - Present | Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | Scottish Labour |
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.
Michael 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]
Michael 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 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]
Since 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.[10]
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.”
Michael Marra is married and has three children.[1]
He is a lifelong Dundee United supporter.[11]
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.[12]