Born in Paisley, Gibson served as an SNP councillor in Glasgow for Mosspark from 1992 to 1999, becoming the first ever party representative in the city to serve successive terms. Following the defection of three Labour councillors and a by-election win, Gibson (also known as 'Kenny')[2][3] became Leader of the Opposition on Glasgow City Council from January 1998 until being replaced on the council by his mother Iris in the election of 1999.
Gibson was the first MSP to lodge plans for a ban of smoking in public places. The proposed Regulation of Smoking Bill was drawn up in the first Parliament but had to be abandoned after Gibson lost his seat in the 2003 Scottish Parliament election.[5]
In 2004, Gibson was third on the SNP's list for election to the European Parliament. In 2007, he was chosen to contest the constituency of Cunninghame North, winning that seat from Labour by the smallest margin in Scotland of 48 votes. In the subsequent 2011 SNP landslide election, Gibson secured a comfortable majority of 6,117 over Allan Wilson, the same Labour candidate, and former Scottish Minister, he had defeated by so slight a margin in 2007.[6]
In addition to his constituency activities, Gibson was also the Convener of the Finance Committee in the Scottish Parliament from 2011 to 2016 and brought attention to enhanced financial powers in the Scotland Act 2012.[7]
Gibson has also been actively involved in a number of Cross-Party Groups. He previously served as Convener of the Cross-Party Group on Epilepsy and the Cross-Party Group on Improving Scotland's Health: 2021 and Beyond. He currently convenes the Cross-Party Group on Life Sciences.[8]
Controversies
In March 2017, Holyrood's Standards Committee admonished Gibson for failure to make an oral declaration of a registered financial interest.[9] The Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland submitted a report to the Procurator Fiscal. However, the alleged offence was "time barred from criminal proceedings."[10] Political opponents called for his suspension from the SNP.[11]
Gibson faced a selection challenge against former MP Corri Wilson and Osama Saeed for the SNP nomination for Cunninghame North at the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections.[12] Individual office-bearers in the Cunninghame North Constituency Association had issued a call for members to come forward to challenge Gibson and all sitting SNP MSPs, saying there should be 'a festival of democracy.'[13] On 14 October it was reported that two local SNP officials had resigned over allegations that Gibson had been 'aggressive and abrasive."[14] Gibson suggested he was the target of a smear campaign and “underhand tactics”.[15] Shortly after this, the SNP suspended the selection procedure in Cunninghame North.[16] SNP National Secretary Angus MacLeod issued a statement at the beginning of a hustings meeting which clarified the party was not investigating Gibson.[17] MacLeod had previously indicated that insufficient evidence had been presented by the complainers.[18] Gibson emerged as the winner of the selection contest.[19]
In December 2022, Gibson was said to be "bordering on hate speech" by Scottish Labour MSP Mercedes Villalba. This was during the Stage 3 debate on the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, where Gibson, on the topic of housing "anatomical males" in women's prisons, stated "If a fox said it was a chicken, would you put it in a henhouse? Of course not."[20]
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