Richard Arkless

{{Infobox officeholder

|name = Richard Arkless

|image =

|office = Member of Parliament
for Dumfries and Galloway

|term_start = 7 May 2015

|term_end = 3 May 2017

|predecessor = Russell Brown

|successor = Alister Jack

|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1975|7|7|df=y}}

|birth_place = Stranraer, Scotland, UK

|party = Scottish National Party

|alma_mater = Glasgow Caledonian University
University of Strathclyde

|relatives = Nick Arkless (brother)

}}

Richard Lambert Thomas Arkless (born 7 July 1975) is a Scottish National Party politician, who was elected as MP for Dumfries and Galloway at the 2015 UK general election.{{cite news|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2334493|title=List of Members returned to Parliament at the General Election 2015 Scotland|work=The Edinburgh Gazette|date=15 May 2015|accessdate=3 June 2015}}{{Cite web|url = http://dumgal.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=14586|title = UK Parliamentary Elections Results 2015 for the Dumfries and Galloway County|date = 8 May 2015|accessdate = 9 May 2015|website = dumgal.gov.uk|publisher = |last = Haswell|first = Alex|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20150509122702/http://dumgal.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=14586#|archivedate = 9 May 2015}} He lost his seat at the following election in 2017.

Background and education

Arkless was born in Stranraer in 1975. He spent an early part of his childhood living in London. He returned to Stranraer when he was eight years old.{{Cite news|url = http://www.itv.com/news/border/2015-05-08/your-mp-elect-richard-arkless/|title = Your MP elect: Richard Arkless|date = 8 May 2015 |work = itv News | accessdate = 9 May 2015}}

He received a BA in Financial Services from Glasgow Caledonian University and has an LLB from the University of Strathclyde.{{Cite web|url = http://www.richardarkless.scot/richard-arkless-%7C-my-cv|title = My CV|accessdate = 9 May 2015|website = richardarkless.scot|url-status = dead|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20150509205050/http://www.richardarkless.scot/richard-arkless-%7C-my-cv|archivedate = 9 May 2015|df = dmy-all}}

Political career

Arkless began to advocate Scottish independence after the 2007 Scottish Parliament election in which the SNP were elected as a minority government for the first time. After a year, he said the SNP were "doing a pretty good job". When the SNP won a majority in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, he said in a May 2015 interview with The National, "I began to really research the figures – the GDP and tax-take – and I was completely and utterly astonished. I couldn't believe that Scotland had a higher per capita GDP, and much higher per capita tax-take over each of the last thirty-five years. I was flabbergasted and asked myself why I had believed completely the opposite all my life without every trying to make it evidence based."{{cite news |url=http://www.thenational.scot/politics/meet-your-new-scottish-mps-16-richard-arkless-dumfries-and-galloway.3516 |title=Meet Your New Scottish MPs: #16 Richard Arkless Dumfries and Galloway |first=Janice |last=Burns |work=The National |date=30 May 2015}}

Standing for the SNP at the 2015 United Kingdom general election, Arkless received 23,440 votes, 41.4% of those cast, winning with a majority of 6,514 votes. He defeated Labour's Russell Brown, who had held the Dumfries and Galloway seat since its creation ten years prior in 2005.{{Cite web|url=http://www.dumgal.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=2500&p=0|title=General Election–Dumfries and Galloway County Constituency–May 2005|date=5 May 2005|accessdate=9 May 2015|website=dumgal.gov.uk|last=Jones|first=Philip N.|archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20150509123540/http://www.dumgal.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=2500&p=0|archivedate=9 May 2015}}{{Cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/vote2005/html/684.stm|title=Election 2005: Result: Dumfries and Galloway|date=6 May 2005|accessdate=9 May 2015|website=BBC News|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141012074204/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/vote2005/html/684.stm|archivedate=12 October 2014}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.dumgal.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=4603&p=0|title=General Election – Dumfries and Galloway Constituency – May 2010|date=7 May 2010|accessdate=9 May 2015|website=dumgal.gov.uk|last=Haswell|first=Alex|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150509123449/http://www.dumgal.gov.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=4603&p=0|archivedate=9 May 2015}}{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/constituency/813.stm|title=Election 2010: Dumfries & Galloway|accessdate=9 May 2015|work=BBC News}} His wife Anne worked as his personal assistant.{{cite news|last1=Michael Wilkinson|first1=Christopher Hope|title=One in five MPs employs a family member: the full list revealed|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/11706561/One-in-four-MPs-employs-a-family-member-the-full-list-revealed.html|work=Daily Telegraph|date=29 June 2015}} Arkless lost his seat in the UK 2017 general election to Conservative MP Alister Jack. He received 16,701 votes, 32.4% of those cast.{{cite news|title=Dumfries & Galloway parliamentary constituency - Election 2017|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/S14000013|accessdate=18 June 2017}}

At the 2019 election, Arkless contested the Dumfries and Galloway seat again as the SNP candidate. He received 20,873 of the votes, 40.6% of those cast. He lost out to the Scottish Secretary, Alister Jack for a second time.{{Cite web |last=Gillespie |first=Stuart |date=2019-12-13 |title=Jack re-elected Dumfries and Galloway MP |url=https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/scottish-secretary-alister-jack-re-21087671 |access-date=2022-07-11 |website=Daily Record |language=en}}

Business career

Arkless left his job as a solicitor to run an online business.{{cite web|url=http://www.businessforscotland.co.uk/author/richardarkless/|title=Richard Arkless, Author at Business for Scotland|website=Business for Scotland}} He returned to his career as a solicitor in 2020 following his retirement from politics.{{cite web|url=https://www.williamsonandhenry.co.uk/the-team/richard-arkless/|title=Richard Arkless, Solicitor|website=Williamson and Henry}}