Neil Charles Gray (born 16 March 1986) was born and brought up in Orkney, and was educated at Kirkwall Grammar School. He graduated from the University of Stirling in 2008 with a first-class Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in politics and journalism. Outside politics he was formerly a keen athlete, representing Scotland, until a serious knee injury ended his career in athletics. He has three daughters and one son with his wife, Karlie. He is a member of the Scottish National Party (SNP).
2008: Right after graduation Gray took up employment as a press and research intern for the SNP parliamentary group at the Scottish Parliament from 2008. He was also employed by Alex Neil, who appointed him to the post of constituency office manager in 2011.
2014: The selection process for the Airdrie SNP candidacy, which Neil Gray ultimately won, was not without controversy. Former diplomat Craig Murray was nominated as a potential candidate at an Airdrie Branch meeting but did not make the final list as he failed SNP candidate vetting, whereupon he commented that “I think in both Airdrie & Shotts and in Falkirk it’s evident who the party hierarchy wants to be the candidate.” Former Policeman and SNP Councillor Alan Beveridge and fellow Councillor John Taggart resigned from the party in February 2015 after Neil Gray was selected, claiming that there was a “climate of fear, intimidation and false allegations within the party” which was highlighted in the selection process.
2015: Elected MP for Airdrie & Shotts. Three, University of Stirling graduates, Steven Paterson, Angela Crawley and Neil Gray made history after being elected as MPs for Stirling, Lanarkshire and Hamilton East and Airdrie and Shotts following the Scottish National Party’s unprecedented gains in the 2015 general election.
2017: Elected MP for Airdrie and Shotts with a significantly reduced majority of 195 votes.
2019: Elected MP, for Airdrie and Shotts. Increased his majority to 5,000 votes.
Nov 2020: Announced that he would be resigning as an MP in order to try and win a seat in the Scottish Parliament at the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.
23 Mar 2021: Made his final speech in the House of Commons, and was appointed Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead a day later. He is the only SNP member to have held that notional office. North Lanarkshire Council calculated that his decision to resign as an MP and trigger a by-election cost taxpayers £175,000. Gray said he’d made his Holyrood bid in order to spend more time with his young family. He said: “It was a risk, nothing is guaranteed in politics and nobody can take the electorate for granted. I certainly didn’t and we put in an incredible effort to get this result. I owed it to my family to try to be closer to home. I’m so pleased that I’ve managed to be around more and to be able to do more in my constituency. I’m so grateful.”
07 May 2021: elected MSP for Airdrie and Shotts. “Best buddies” friendship with Humza Yousaf revealed. See: (https://caltonjock.com/2025/06/14/a-whistle-blower-alleged-a-scots-businessman-and-good-friend-of-humza-yousaf-had-made-undeclared-cash-donations-in-a-cash-for-seats-operation-paul-di-mascios-nepotism-claim/)
24 Jan 2022: Appointed, Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development. He was quickly tipped for the top. After just 18 months as an MSP, the former first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, appointed him to her ministerial team, with responsibility for international development and then in addition, for Ukrainian refugees. He won the One to Watch gong at Holyrood’s Garden Party and Political Awards a few months later. And when Sturgeon stood down, he was being discussed in certain quarters as a potential successor. He says he did think about it and “there were conversations had” but that, fundamentally, with four children all under the age of eight, he felt he couldn’t give the job of first minister everything that it required.
Once Humza Yousaf put his hat in the ring, Gray threw his full support behind him. “I had a pretty early conversation with Humza, obviously, and when I knew that he was thinking about it, I was pretty clear in my mind that he was absolutely the right person to take us forward. That was the right thing to do. And I gave a very early commitment that I would support him.” Gray was by Yousaf’s side throughout the leadership contest and that unequivocal support was rewarded when the new first minister gave Gray the pivotal role of Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy in his new Cabinet.
Of Humza he said: “as the fathers of young children we understand the pressures of family life and the vital role their respective wives bring to their support of them. Humza and I are friends, we understand each other, can be open with each other, be frank with each other, and we can also challenge each other, and that is so important in government when you are looking for new ideas. We both understand the importance of our family and the pressures we are all under. We meet up and we have playdates with the kids. Amal [Yousaf’s youngest daughter] is the same age as my twins, and Nadia and Karlie know each other and get on, so that’s really nice. It means we can properly reflect on how well – or not – we are doing at juggling work and family life and, just as important as it is having that strong team behind you at home, it’s also important to have that camaraderie at work as well, and have a mutual understanding of those pressures of work and having young children, because it’s not easy. He was quickly tipped for the top. After just 18 months as an MSP, the former first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, appointed him to her ministerial team, with responsibility for international development and then in addition, for Ukrainian refugees. He won the One to Watch gong at Holyrood’s Garden Party and Political Awards a few months later. And when Sturgeon stood down, he was being discussed in certain quarters as a potential successor. He says he did think about it and “there were conversations had” but that, fundamentally, with four children all under the age of eight, he felt he couldn’t give the job of first minister everything that it required. (Extracted from Mandy Rhodes, Holyrood blog)
29 Mar 2023: Appointed Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing, Economy, Fair Work and Energy.
08 Feb 2024: Appointed Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, succeeding Michael Matheson, who had ben forced to resign amid an expenses scandal.
Nov 2024: Gray faced criticism after it was revealed that he had used an official ministerial car to be chauffeured to watch four Aberdeen F.C. football matches. Gray, an acknowledged fan of Aberdeen F.C., registered the events as official government visits. In a statement to the Scottish Parliament, Gray also admitted to using an official car to attend five Scotland matches, and that he had been accompanied by a family member or guest to six of the matches. Gray said all the engagements were “official ministerial business” and that summaries were available for all of the meetings, but apologised for not attending “a wider range of games”, and for creating the impression that he was acting “more as a fan and less as a minister”. The Scottish Conservatives accused Gray of having a “jolly to watch the football” at the expense of the taxpayer and called for the costs to be refunded in full, while the Scottish Greens criticised him for not using public transport. First Minister John Swinney told journalists that he would not refer Gray for investigation under the ministerial code, and that he considered the matter “closed”. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPRlM7yBdJ4) (reported by David Bol Deputy Political Editor)
27 Nov 2024: SNP dealt blow as NHS recovery in Scotland lagging behind target
27 Nov 2024: The SNP Health Minister has been urged to rethink the NHS recovery strategy after new analysis from the “Institute of Fiscal Studies” (IFS) found hospital performance is “still worsening.” The divergence emerged despite the Health Minister bringing forward targets designed to increase activity and increases in staffing. Between April and June, hospitals in Scotland treated 6 per cent fewer inpatient and day cases and delivered 6 per cent fewer outpatient appointments than before the Covid pandemic.
The Scottish Government’s NHS recovery plan, published in 2021, aimed to increase inpatient and day case activity to 15 per cent above pre-pandemic levels this year. The IFS said one reason for the failure to increase activity is that patients now have a much higher average length of stay in hospital, in part due to challenges with delayed discharges. The IFS analysis stressed “there is a clearer difference between Scotland and England when it comes to performance over the last year. In Scotland, almost all measures of NHS performance have worsened over the last year. For example, the elective waiting list has continued to grow from 692,000 in September 2023 to 725,000 in September 2024, and the share of patients waiting less than four hours at A&E has fallen slightly from 66.5 per cent in September 2023 to 65.9 per cent in September 2024. The only measure considered that has improved in Scotland is for diagnostic tests, where the share waiting six weeks or less has risen from 49.8 per cent in September 2023 to 53.6 per cent in September 2024. In Scotland, hospital activity remains below pre-pandemic levels, and waiting time performance has worsened over the last year. The same is not true in England, where performance remains poor, but is at least moving in the right direction. It is vital the Scottish Government is honest about the poor performanc since understanding and improving NHS performance and productivity is a major priority.
Tory MSP, Dr Sandesh Gulhane commented: “On the SNP’s watch, hundreds of thousands of patients remain on NHS waiting lists, delayed discharge has hit record levels and cancer waiting times have not been met in over a decade. The IFS’s findings should be an urgent wake-up call for Neil Gray who should be honest about the permanent crisis in Scotland’s NHS. He must accept his current approach is failing and outline a real plan that accelerates the recovery in our health service.”
Scottish Liberal Democrats leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “This is a damning indictment of the SNP’s failure to tackle the crisis in our NHS. Ministers have repeatedly boasted about Scotland’s superior performance to England, but this report makes a total mockery of those claims. Hundreds of thousands of Scots are stuck on an NHS waiting list. Every day people sit in agony at A&E departments, wondering if they will ever be seen. This Government must stop making up bogus excuses and finally confront the emergency in front of them. That starts by rewriting Humza Yousaf’s botched NHS Recovery Plan and repairing the crisis in social care, so that more people can leave hospital on time. You can’t fix the NHS without fixing care.”
Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie said the report told the Government what patients and staff have known for years, that “Scottish hospitals are buckling under the strain of SNP incompetence. The SNP pledged over a year ago that it would spend £300 million in driving down waiting lists, but just £30m of this funding has been allocated to health boards so far. At the same time, we know that there were 50,000 fewer planned ops in the last 12 months compared to same point pre-pandemic. This is simply unacceptable. Scottish Labour will tackle delayed discharge and reduce waiting lists so our hospitals can focus on emergency treatment once again.” (The Scotsman)
Jan 2025: A freedom of Information request revealed that no note was produced of the Gray’s meeting at the 2023 League Cup final at Hampden Park. Gray subsequently apologised to the Scottish Parliament for making a misleading statement. John Swinney re-iterated his support for Gray and insisted that the Health Secretary had made an “inadvertent error”.
Jan 2025: John Swinney has admitted the NHS is in “crisis” as he relaunched the Government’s plan to save the health service. The First Minster tore up earlier strategies in an attempt at slashing waiting times and tackling the “canary in the coalmine” of delayed discharge. He also insisted embattled Health Secretary Neil Gray will still be in the job by the autumn. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2ldY_Sp_NI) Appears Swinney is incapable of delegating responsibility for health to his minister or the minister is incapable of doing the job. Perhaps away at the football too often.
19 Feb 2025: health secretary Neil Gray today failed to back nurse Sandie Peggie amid a row over single-sex spaces – but supported the leadership of the scandal-hit health board NHS Fife. The NHS nurse objected to trans colleague Dr Beth Upton using the women’s facility at Victoria Hospital in Fife back in 2023 – with the case subject to an ongoing employment tribunal. Opposition leaders including Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar backed Ms Peggie – but Mr Gray refused to do so when asked during a visit to the Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Epy0dkG1M0). His position is at odds with guidance to the Health Board by the “Equality and Human Rights Commission” (EHRC). (https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/equalities-watchdog-intervenes-in-nhs-fife-transgender-row-involving-dr-beth-upton-5002557)
01 Apr 2025: Ordering the lifting of a long-standing salary freeze for SNP Ministers (introduced by then First Minister Alex Salmond in 2009), enabled Swinney to give all Government Ministers a bumper £30,000 salary bonus (total annual recurring increase of salary and extra’s around £1.5miillion). He was allset to pocket the rise himself boosting his take-home pay to £155,000 butl he performed a dramatic U-turn hours after the “Mail on Sunday” asked him to explain the unjutified pay rise bonanza. A source close to Swinney said the newspaper revelations had helped ‘crystallise’ his view that it would be inappropriate or him to take the rise. The annual pay for Cabinet Ministers, including the poor performing Health Minister Neil Gray pay has been increased to £116,125 PA. Junior SNP ministers now earn £100,575 PA.
The pay hike came into force on the same day that tens of thousands of Scots were plunged into higher tax brackets in a move that sparked fury among hard-working Scots. And the revelation came only days after Swinney was accused of using a trip to New York Tartan Week as a taxpayer-funded ‘jolly’ abroad.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the Tax-Payers’ Alliance, said: ‘Scots will be absolutely seething at the way in which ministers are stuffing their pockets with extra taxpayer cash all while frontline services are spluttering and the tax burden is soaring. The public realm is in a miserable state in Scotland, with politicians abjectly failing to deliver on voters’ priorities, while also hammering taxpayer with some of the highest bills in the UK. If these ministers had any shame they’d be abandoning this pay rise and would not consider another one until they’ve delivered a boost in living standards, measured by GDP per capita.”
14 Jun 2025: Scandal-hit SNP health chief Neil Gray used a taxpayer-funded limo to chauffeur him to an Aberdeen pub before watching a Dons game last year. The Aberdeen fan is embroiled in a fresh ‘limogate’ storm over a trip to the city’s Brig O’ Don pub ahead of attending the side’s clash against Livingston in May last year. The journeys were incorrectly logged in the official ministerial register as trips to and from a ‘personal address in Aberdeen’ rather than the watering hole. But they were later amended after an investigation found there was no evidence of the Airdrie MSP having a second home in the region
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