Christina McKelvie's partner pays emotional tribute to 'soulmate'

Christina McKelvie’s partner and “soulmate” fought back tears as he said “a star has been extinguished” in an emotional tribute to the late MSP.

Deputy SNP leader Keith Brown said McKelvie was “everything people said she was”.

“I’ve often thought of Christina as a star: she was glamourous, she was sparkly, she was fun,” Brown said in a moving tribute at Holyrood on Wednesday.

“She was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Brown concluded an hour of tributes from MSPs across the Scottish political spectrum to the Scottish Government minister.

Brown said McKelvie loved her job and party and was always a “champion for the people of Scotland and an advocate for social justice and for Scotland to be an independent nation in Europe”.

But to her family, Brown said McKelvie “was our beloved mum, partner and gran to Maeve and Leo”.

“She was everything that people have said she was,” Brown said.

“She was a feminist, she was a staunch supporter of the LGBTQ community, she was a staunch support of travellers when people were not, and I know it is contentious but it would not be true not to say it: she was a trans ally. She supported trans people.

“She was also, and it’s not surprise to hear, a very staunch supporter of Scottish independence.”

Brown also said she was a gifted artist, poet, and photographer. He said she loved to swim in the warm ocean and took her tea black with two sugars. Many people said she was also an endlessly proud mother and granny.

‘Beautiful, funny, wise’

First Minister John Swinney brought a motion of condolence to the chamber to formally express Holyrood’s “deep sadness” at the death of McKelvie and recognise her “significant and widely appreciated contribution” to Scottish politics and public life.

“My Government has lost an outstanding minister, my party has lost one its finest parliamentarians and many people of all parties and none have lost a true friend, but I know we will all feel the glow of her warmth for years to come,” Swinney said.

“I’m so profoundly grateful my life has been blessed by the friendship and love of one of parliament’s finest.”

Scottish Labour deputy Jackie Baillie described McKevlie as “good humoured, always smiling, always warm, and always up for mischief”.

“The passing of McKelvie leaves a void in our parliament, in public life, and in the hearts of many who knew her,” Baillie said.

“But as we reflect on her life, it is impossible to conclude that it was anything other than a life well lived, a life full of love for her friends and her family and a life that touched so many other and enriched our days.”

Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon reflected that the chamber feels “far too quiet” without McKelvie’s “infectious laughter”.

“It’s impossible to encapsulate the remarkable human being she was,” Sturgeon said.

“It is her laugh and unfailing ability to lift my spirits that I’ll remember most about the beautiful, funny, wise woman that was Christina McKelvie.”

‘A life well lived’

McKelvie was born in 1968 and became an MSP in 2007 – representing Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse from 2011.

She was Minister for Equalities from 2018 to 2023, when she became Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, and was Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy from February 2024.

As an MSP she was Convener or the European and External Relations Committee and a member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe between 2016 and 2018, and then Convener of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee from September 2016 until she was appointed a Minister in 2018.

She was also a long-standing and active member of the SNP and a trade unionist with Unison during her time working in social work services in Glasgow

Brown said: “She was always hard working and enthusiastic and lit up every room she was in with her positivity and bright smile. She was always proud of her working-class roots in Easterhouse and often said she could not have dreamt of becoming a government minister for the Scottish Government.”

McKelvie was also an advocate for people living with Motor Neurone Disease and sponsored the first Wear It Pink campaign at the Scottish Parliament in support of Breast Cancer Now – many years before her own diagnosis with breast cancer.

The Scottish Parliament has opened an online book of condolence. Comments left online will be collated and sent to Christina’s family.