Lewis Campbell (Scottish Greens)

Who is he?

Scottish Greens candidate for Dunfermline and West Fife.

Lewis is the Scottish Greens’ candidate for Dunfermline and West Fife.

At 19, he is one of the 10 youngest candidates in the UK. He grew up in Dunfermline, attending Touch Primary and Woodmill High School.

Working life:

He's in his second year of studying Sustainable Development at St Andrews University. 

Lewis is Vice-President of the university's Young Greens, External Campaigns Convener of St Andrews Students for Independence, and Chair of the St Andrews Anti-TTIP group.

Scottish Greens election pledges:

  •  A minimum wage of £10 per hour by 2020.
  • To abolish the 'bedroom tax' and Workfare.
  • To end the current welfare sanctions system and to halt the roll-out of Universal Credit.
  • An end to austerity, with more spending on homes, children and the NHS.
  • Bigger focus on renewable energy, with a view to ending the use of fossil fuels like coal, and against fracking.
  • To renationalise the train network, rather than have it run by private companies. 

About Dunfermline & West Fife

Dunfermline is officially the second largest settlement in Fife, though some estimates say the town could have more than 50,000 residents, which would make it larger than Kirkcaldy.

Locals consider it a city due to Dunfermline Abbey, which contains the body of King Robert The Bruce.

The only other towns in the constituency are Rosyth, which is heavily reliant on the ship-building industry, and Inverkeithing. The rest is made up of smaller villages such as Blairhall, Cairneyhill, Crossgates, Culross, Oakley, Saline and Valleyfield.

Coal mining used to be the principal employer in the constituency until the industry's collapse in the 1980's, many jobs in the area now come from call centres for major businesses like BSkyB, Lloyds and Nationwide, as well as the large Amazon fulfillment centre.

Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie is from the area, and donated Pittencrieff Park to the community in 1903. Mr Carnegie donated around 90% of his $350 million fortune to good causes, that's around £4.76 billion in today's money. Numerous parts of Dunfermline are named after him.

The town is home to Dunfermline Athletic Football Club, who play in the SPFL League One, after years in the top division.

Appin Crecent, which leads to Dunfermline centre, Edinburgh, and Stirling east bound, and the rest of Fife west bound, has some of the highest recorded levels of air pollution in Scotland.

Peacocks and peahens have had the freedom of Dunfermline since the 1900's, and Pittencrief Park, or The Glen, is now home to a peafowl sanctuary.

The constituency has been a traditional Labour seat, though the Liberal Democrat's Willie Rennie won a by-election for the seat in 2006 following the death of Rachael Squire. He later lost to incumbent Thomas Docherty. Mr Docherty is defending a majority of 5,470, the smallest margin of victory in Fife in 2010.

The SNP took Dunfermline in the 2010 Scottish Parliament election, but then lost the seat in a by-election to Labour's Cara Hilton in 2013 after MSP Bill Walker resigned following a 12-month conviction for a string of historic domestic assaults.

The main constituency issues - in his opinion:

Who else is standing here:

Douglas Chapman, SNP

Gillian Cole-Hamilton, Scottish Liberal Democrats

James Reekie, Scottish Conservatives

Thomas Docherty, Scottish Labour

Why Lewis Campbell thinks you should vote for him: