Political History
Fox describes Tony Benn as "one of my heroes", and says that it was after attending a talk given by Benn at Glasgow University that he was inspired to get involved in politics.
He was a leading activist in the struggle against the poll tax in Edinburgh as a member of Labour Party Young Socialists, and became Lothian regional organiser of the SSP. He was selected as its no. 1 candidate in Lothian region for the Scottish Parliament election of 2003, and was elected. He lost his seat in the 2007 election.
On 28 November 2004 he announced his candidature for Convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party after the resignation of Tommy Sheridan. At the SSP conference on 13 February 2005 Fox was elected with 252 votes against 154 for Alan McCombes. He was re-elected unopposed at the February 2006, October 2006 and October 2007 conferences. In the March 2008 conference the position of convenor was abolished and replaced by two national spokespersons, a man and a woman. Fox is currently the sole spokesperson after Frances Curran stood down at the April 2011 conference.
He was the SSP's no. 1 candidate at the European Parliament election, 2009 and against Alastair Darling in Edinburgh South West at the United Kingdom general election, 2010.
The SSP selected him as the no. 1 candidate in Lothian region in the Scottish Parliament election, 2011.
Read more about this topic: Colin Fox
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