Willie Rennie

Who is Willie Rennie?

William Cowan "Willie" Rennie is a Scottish politician and current Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

After college, Rennie spent most of his early career as a Liberal Democrat election campaigner and official before working as a public relations consultant in the private sector. He became the Member of Parliament for Dunfermline and West Fife after a by-election win in February 2006.

He later lost this seat to Labour in the May 2010 UK general election but was subsequently appointed in the same month by the newly formed UK Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition as a Special Government Adviser working successively for the Liberal Democrat Scottish Secretaries of State Danny Alexander MP and Michael Moore MP at the Scotland Office.

He later resigned from his special adviser role in June 2010 to stand for the Scottish Parliament in the May 2011 elections. Despite the overall collapse of the party in the election he managed to be elected as an additional member for the Mid Scotland and Fife region with 5.9% of the regional list vote. He was soon after elected unopposed as leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrat party, replacing Tavish Scott.