Cathie Craigie

Cathie Craigie was a Scottish Labour politician who served as Member of the Scottish Parliament for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth from the first Holyrood election in 1999 until 2011. She died on 10 September 2026 after a short illness, aged 72. First Minister John Swinney led public tributes, calling her a kind and generous colleague, and the Presiding Officer marked her passing in the chamber on 15 September 2026.

Born in Stirling on 14 April 1954, Craigie built her career in local government before devolution. She was a district councillor for Cumbernauld and Kilsyth from 1984 to 1994 and district leader from 1994 to 1996, then a North Lanarkshire councillor from 1996 to 1999. That grounding in local service shaped the constituency focus she brought to the new Scottish Parliament.

At the 1999 election she won Cumbernauld and Kilsyth for Labour and held it in 2003 (majority 520) and 2007 (majority 2,079) before losing the seat to Jamie Hepburn of the SNP in 2011 by 3,459 votes. In Parliament she sat on the Justice Committee and the Petitions Committee. She was the first woman to successfully steer a Member's Bill through Holyrood: the Mortgage Rights (Scotland) Act, which strengthened protection for people facing repossession. She also convened the Cross-Party Group on Deafness and was working on a British Sign Language Bill when she lost her seat.

Colleagues across parties remembered her determination and dedication. The Presiding Officer told MSPs that her public service as a long-serving councillor and inaugural-session parliamentarian had earned respect across the political spectrum, and extended condolences to her family, friends and former colleagues. BBC News reported the tributes on 12 September 2026.

Craigie's career linked district town halls to the new devolved Parliament, with a practical focus on housing security and deaf constituents. This memorial draws on Wikipedia, BBC reporting, and the Scottish Parliament's official tribute.

Her path from district chambers to Holyrood mirrored the wider story of Scottish devolution: local politicians who knew housing lists and school catchment rows suddenly writing national statute. Craigie used that experience on the Justice and Petitions committees and in the Cross-Party Group on Deafness, pressing for practical legal protections rather than symbolic gestures alone. The Mortgage Rights (Scotland) Act remains the clearest legislative marker of that approach.

After leaving Parliament in 2011 she stayed part of the political memory of Cumbernauld and Kilsyth, a seat that moved from Labour to the SNP in the same election that ended her Holyrood career. The tributes that followed her death in September 2026 came from across party lines, which matched how colleagues described her work in life. This page records the verified dates, offices and legislation, and points readers to the BBC report and the Scottish Parliament Official Report for contemporary wording of those tributes.