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Kenneth Gibson (Scottish politician)

Scottish politician (born 1961)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ944741 ↗
Source-derived summary

Kenneth James Gibson (born 8 September 1961) is a Scottish politician who has served as the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament since May 2026. A former member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), he resigned his party affiliation upon becoming Presiding Officer. He has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Cunninghame North since 2007, having previously represented the Glasgow region between 1999 and 2003.

Gibson was born in Paisley and has a BA in Economics from the University of Stirling. He served as an SNP councillor in Glasgow from 1992 to 1999, when he was elected to the new Scottish Parliament. In the 2003 election, Gibson lost his seat as a list member for the Glasgow region. He was narrowly elected as MSP for the Cunninghame North constituency in 2007 and has represented the area since. He is one of only four current MSPs who were originally elected to Holyrood in its inaugural election.

As an SNP backbencher, Gibson twice convened the Parliament's Finance Committee (2011–2016 and 2021–2026). In this role, he was praised for a willingness to challenge his own government.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Kenneth Gibson (Scottish politician)” as scottish politician (born 1961). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1961, 2026, 2007, 1999—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1961-09-08. The account is most persuasive where Kenneth, Gibson and Scottish can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as scottish politician (born 1961). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q944741. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1961, 2026, 2007 and 1999.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Kenneth Gibson (Scottish politician)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Kenneth Gibson (Scottish politician) primary sources, Kenneth Gibson (Scottish politician) archive and Kenneth research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kenneth Gibson (Scottish politician)”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Kenneth Gibson (Scottish politician)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.