Anna Anderson McCurley née Gemmell, (born 18 January 1943) is a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 politician.

McCurley, a teacher by vocation, served as a councillor on Strathclyde

Strathclyde

right|thumb|the former Strathclyde regionStrathclyde was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created by the Local Government Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc Act 1994...

 Regional Council

Regional Council

Regional Council or regional council may refer to the following:*Regional Council *Regional Council, Hong Kong*Regional council *Regional Council - the Parliament of a Regione of Italy*Regional councils in New Zealand...

 1978-82. McCurley contested West Stirlingshire

West Stirlingshire (UK Parliament constituency)

West Stirlingshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, to which it elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post electoral system....

 in 1979 and Glasgow Central

Glasgow Central (UK Parliament constituency)

Glasgow Central is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . In its current form, the constituency was first used in the general election of 2005, but there was also a Glasgow Central constituency from 1885 to 1997.- Boundaries :The Redistribution of Seats Act...

 in a 1980 by-election

Glasgow Central by-election, 1980

The Glasgow Central by-election, 1980 was a by-election held on 26 June 1980 for the British House of Commons constituency of Glasgow Central, following the death of its sitting MP, Thomas McMillan.On a turnout of 48%, the Labour Party held the seat....

.

She was elected as Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Renfrew West and Inverclyde

Renfrew West and Inverclyde (UK Parliament constituency)

Renfrewshire West and Inverclyde was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1983 to 1997.The constituency was created out of, and merged back into, the West Renfrewshire constituency.-Members of Parliament:...

 in the landslide of 1983. She lost the seat to Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 candidate Tommy Graham in 1987. During her time in Parliament, she was described by The Scotsman

The Scotsman

The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....

 newspaper as outspoken and formidable, and praised by her successor for her political independence and interest in her constituents. She contested the Chairmanship of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Association, the party's voluntary wing, in 1989 losing to Sir Michael Hirst, the MP for Eastwood, with whom she publicly opposed the parliamentary candidature of following a long rivalry.

In 1997, she attempted to become the Conservative parliamentary candidate for the Eastwood

Eastwood (UK Parliament constituency)

Eastwood was a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1983 until 2005. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- History :...

 constituency, but failed to make it to the shortlist stage, with Paul Cullen

Paul Cullen, Lord Pentland

Paul Benedict Cullen, Lord Pentland is a former Solicitor General for Scotland and a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of the country's Supreme Courts.-Early life:...

 eventually taking the candidature. She explained her defeat by suggesting her "views are more traditional Conservative than modern Conservative".

McCurley defected to the Scottish Liberal Democrats

Scottish Liberal Democrats

The Scottish Liberal Democrats are one of the three state parties within the federal Liberal Democrats; the others being the Welsh Liberal Democrats and the Liberal Democrats in England...

 in 1998 and stood as a candidate in the 1999 elections to the Scottish Parliament

Scottish Parliament

The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...

 for Eastwood

Eastwood (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Eastwood is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the first past the post method of election...

.