Fife Councillor Mike Scott-Hayward New Chairman UKIP Scotland

Fife Councillor Mike Scott-Hayward New Chairman UKIP Scotland

At their EGM on Sunday 2 October 2011 UKIPScotland's members elected Fife Councillor Mike Scott-Hayward as chairman to replace Paul Henke who has stood down due to his continuing successful book writing commitments.

In his acceptance speech Mike thanked Paul for his chairmanship over the previous four years. He said that as Chairman he wanted to encourage UKIPScotland to keep several themes to the fore in campaigning: "We stand for a nation that is British and Sovereign, free from outside diktats; we have excellent pragmatic policies to promote, indeed, some of which are being now used by parties in power, a victory for our thinking; we are a party of the United Kingdom, and not one that will roll over in bits in the face of attempts to break up the UK. Our task now is to recruit candidates for next year's council elections to give the electorate a proper democratic choice and the chance to vote for something better than EU appeasement or being smothered by local bureaucrats".

Mike was brought up in South Africa. He moved to Scotland and joined the Royal Artillery, serving in Germany, England, Northern Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Cyprus, Belize, Oman and Scotland. He has commanded Gun Batteries in Oman and Germany and worked for the Adjutant General in Whitehall at the MOD.

Mike entered politics as a Conservative with a by-election victory at Crail in 1987, ousting the Liberal Democrats. He served for over 4 years on North East Fife District Council and was on the Planning, Housing, Recreation and Licensing Committees, and the then Local Health Council and Local Tourist Board.

He has stood for Parliament in Dunfermline West in 1992, Edinburgh Central in 1997 and North East Fife in 2001 and 2005. He twice contested the Scottish Parliamentary seat of Kirkcaldy. In 2010 he stood for UKIP in the North East Fife seat at the Westminster election and also in 2011 for the Scottish elections.

In October 1999, he won a Fife Council by-election in Elie, St Monans and Pittenweem and is still a serving Councillor. He is full time operational Watch Officer with HM Coastguard.

In the Conservatives, he was the Chairman of the Scottish Environment Policy Committee, the Candidates' Association and later the Conservative Association Chairman in North East Fife. He left the Conservatives in February 2008 when David Cameron broke with traditional Conservative policies. Mike then joined UKIP in Sep 2008 and is currently Chairman of the Fife Branch.

In Fife Council Mike is currently on his Area Committee, which covers all local council matters and planning in particular. An ex-officio member of many Trusts, he is also on the Licensing and Regulation Committee and on the Policy, Finance and Asset Management Committee. He has previously served on the Licensing Board, Social Work Committee and on the Police, Fire and Community Safety Committee.

A man of wide political experience Mike is looking forward to using his experiences to help take UKIPScotland and its members onward to new levels in Scottish politics starting at next years Council elections in May.

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