Westminster bid to honour Winnie Portrait plea for SNP’s pioneering MP
SHE was the first SNP candidate to be elected as a Westminster MP, changing Scottish politics forever.
Now Winnie Ewing could become the first SNP politician to be honoured by having her portrait hung in the Palace of Westminster.
An SNP MP has launched a bid to get more portraits of the party’s grandees on the walls of the Houses of Parliament, and the woman who sent shockwaves through Scottish politics when she won the Hamilton by-election in 1967 is top of his list.
Neil Gray has written to Speaker John Bercow asking him to consider commissioning a painting of Ewing.
He said: “Winnie Ewing was a pioneer, not just for the SNP, but for women in politics.
“She was a great parliamentarian, having sat in Westminster, the European Parliament in Brussels and at Holyrood.
“Her portrait already hangs in Holyrood, but it’s right and proper she should be honoured in a similar way by Westminster, where she was first elected.”
Winnie lost her Hamilton seat in 1970 but returned to Westminster in 1974 as member for Moray & Nairn.
She also served in the European Parliament where she gained the nickname “Madame Ecosse” and she presided over the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999.
She stood down as an MSP in 2003, but continued as SNP party president until 2005.
Gray has also proposed Margo MacDonald should be considered for a portrait, even though she only sat in the Commons for less than four months after winning the Govan by-election in 1973.
However, Gray says Margo has earned a spot on Westminster walls as she was a “titan of Scottish and UK politics”.
The parliamentary authorities have just relaxed the rules around portraits of politicians. Previously a parliamentarian had to be dead for 10 years before they could be considered for a portrait or statue – ruling out most previous SNP MPs.
Now former MPs who are still alive can be considered for a portrait, once they have been out of Westminster for two parliaments.
Gray, MP for Airdrie & Shotts, added: “Scrapping the 10-year rule is sensible. To make Westminster more welcoming to all, its art collection needs to be more representative.”
With the last parliament only lasting from 2015 to 2017, anyone who stepped down or was defeated in 2010 can now be nominated.
And if there were an election in October this year, all those who lost in 2015 would become eligible.
Among those now eligible to be nominated for a portrait are Anne Widdecombe, first female Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and the first Muslim MP, Mohammed Sarwar.
A spokeswoman for the Houses of Parliament said decisions regarding portrait commissions are made by the Works of Art Committee and any MP can nominate a particular individual they feel should be represented.
In addition to portraits, there are a number of sculptures of former politicians in the Palace of Westminster, including former Speaker Betty Boothroyd; Barbara Castle, the Labour MP who holds the record as the longest- serving woman in parliament; Nancy Astor, the first female member of Parliament to take her seat, and former PM Margaret Thatcher.
In 2009 a portrait of Winnie, painted by David Donaldson, was put on display at the Scottish Parliament.