Martin Whitfield

Following the announcement that the US would impose tariffs on Single Malt Scotch Whisky from 18 October 2019, Whitfield took a leading role in efforts to encourage the UK Government to persuade US counterparts to reconsider the move and co-ordinated a letter to the US Ambassador.

In June 2018, Whitfield led an adjournment debate on the challenges faced by people with 'hidden' disabilities, particularly in relation to the use of accessible toilets and cited the Grace's Sign campaign run by a young constituent, Grace Warnock. In June 2019 he led a further backbench debate on invisible disabilities and accessibility challenges, including the new Any Disability Sign.

In October 2018 he attracted widespread praise after leading a Commons debate on World Menopause Day.

Whitfield was the Co-Chair of Anas Sarwar's unsuccessful 2017 Scottish Labour Party leadership campaign. He is supporting Ian Murray MP's UK Labour deputy leadership campaign and Jackie Baillie MSP's Scottish Labour deputy leadership campaign.

Whitfield was born in Gosforth in Newcastle and achieved BA(Hons) in Business Law from Huddersfield Polytechnic. He worked as a solicitor between 1989 and 2001, before leaving the law profession to retrain as a teacher at the University of Edinburgh, achieving a PGCPE pass with merit in teaching in 2002.

Martin David Whitfield (born 1965) is a Scottish Labour Party politician and former primary school teacher. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Lothian from the 2017 snap general election, when he unseated the sitting MP, George Kerevan of the Scottish National Party, until his defeat at the 2019 general election by Kenny McAskill.