I am the Member of Parliament for Glasgow North and Shadow frontbench spokesperson on Scotland.

I previously served on the Scottish Affairs Committee and then as a member of the International Development Committee at the House of Commons. I have also served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland, Chair of the All Party Group on Debt, Aid and Trade and Chair of the backbench group of Scottish Labour MPs.

I was born in Paisley on 22 April 1961. I attended Sacred Heart High School in Paisley and Paisley Grammar School. After leaving school, I studied Scots Law at Strathclyde University. I then practised as a solicitor from 1983 until 2000. Between 1990 and 2000 I was a partner in the Glasgow legal firm, Pacitti Jones. I have lived in Glasgow North Constituency for over 17 years.

I was a Labour Party candidate in the Scottish Parliament Elections in 1999 on the West of Scotland list. I served as the Secretary of the Glasgow Kelvin Constituency Labour Party from 1995-1998 and as their Women's Officer from 2000-2001.

In March 2001, after Maria Fyfe announced her decision not to stand for re-election, I was selected by Maryhill Labour Party to be their Westminster Parliamentary candidate. At the General Election in June 2001, I was elected as Member of Parliament for Glasgow Maryhill.

Boundary changes to Westminster parliamentary constituencies created the new Glasgow North seat and I was chosen to be the Labour Party candidate by local party members. I am very pleased to have been elected in the 2005 General Election to represent this new, diverse and exciting constituency.

From September 2008 to May 2010 I served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Scotland Office.

My personal interests include dancing, films and art history.

In other places...

You can of course see many profiles of MPs throughout the web, here are a selection of Ann's:

• Wikipedia: Ann McKechin
• The Guardian
• BBC
• Dods
• Labour