Stephen Flynn is one of seven leading political figures taking part in tonight’s BBC General Election debate.
The 35-year-old is leader of the Scottish National Party in the House of Commons, meaning he heads the party in Westminster while John Swinney is the main leader back in Edinburgh. Mr Flynn will take to the stage for the debate live on the BBC tonight from 7.30pm to 9pm, with Mishal Husain set to host.
Representatives from of the main parties within the UK will clash over the issues, including the SNP, Tories, Labour, the Lib Dems, Plaid Cymru, the Greens and Reform UK.
Here’s what you need to know about Stephen Flynn – including his wife, family and recent comment about England’s chances in the Euros:
Who is Stephen Flynn and how did he rise through the SNP?
Stephen Flynn was born in Dundee and raised in the city and in the town of Brechin. After studying politics at the University of Dundee he moved to Aberdeen, where he became a councillor on the city council in 2015.
In 2019 he was elected the MP for Aberdeen South, and overturned a 4,700 majority to beat Tory candidate Douglas Lumsden. He succeeded Ian Blackford as SNP’s Westminster leader in 2022. Last month, he criticised Rishi Sunak for comparing those calling for Scottish independence with Russia, Iran, and North Korea – telling BBC’s Question Time that the Prime Minister had “labelled half the population as extremists”.
Family life and health condition
Stephen is married to Lynn Flynn and has two children. He supports Dundee United. He suffered from avascular necrosis – a condition which causes bones to die and crumble due to a lack of bloody supply – in his hip from his early teens until he had an operation aged 32.
Describing how it made daily life in the House of Commons a painful experience, he told the Daily Record last year: “It was hellish. I was in a lot of pain for a long period of my life. When I first came down here, I was in a lot of pain. It wasn’t necessarily moving around this building, it was more just sitting in the chamber and bobbing because you’ve got to stand up and sit down for hours to ask questions.
“I’m quite a resilient person so I just powered through. But I think that knowledge and that understanding of being a disabled teenager and a disabled man for that length of time is quite a good grounding for what’s important in life.”
England ‘won’t make it’ to final
In an ITV interview this week, Stephen Flynn said he won’t be cheering on England at Euro 2024 -and predicted Gareth Southgate’s team would not make the final He’s known to be an avid follower of the Scottish national team, and was going to attend all their three group matches in Germany unti Rishi Sunak called the General Election for July 4.
Asked why he would not support England when Scotland are not playing, he said it was because he was “a member of the Tartan Army”. He added: “It’s my hobby to go and watch Scotland play. We’re rivals, I want to see Scotland do as well as we can in the Euros.”
When it was put to Flynn that Scotland could not meet England until the final of the tournament, he replied: “England are not going to make it that far, so we’ll just have to go by ourselves.”
Who will he face in tonight’s debate?
He’ll be up against six other representatives from the UK’s major parties. They are Tory Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt, Labour’s Deputy Leader Angela Rayner, Reform UK’s Nigel Farage, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper, Carla Denyer of the Green Party and Rhun ap Iorwerth of Plaid Cymru.