Wishart stood in the
2017 Scottish local elections as an independent candidate for
Shetland Islands Council, being elected as one of four members for the Lerwick South ward. After the election she was appointed depute convenor of the council. In July 2019 she was selected as a candidate for the Scottish Liberal Democrats for the
2019 Shetland by-election scheduled for 29 August, having been associated with the party for the previous decade – running the offices of
Alistair Carmichael,
MP for
Orkney and Shetland, and the outgoing
MSP for
Shetland,
Tavish Scott. Wishart held the seat for the Scottish Liberal Democrats with a majority of 1,837 votes or 15.5%. She made her maiden speech in the
Scottish Parliament on 10 September 2019, which concerned immigration into
Scotland after
Brexit. Shortly after being elected, Wishart was appointed as education spokesperson for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, and was made a member of the Scottish Parliament's Education and Skills Committee. Wishart, who had previously worked on the Shetland Islands Council's Education and Families Committee, stressed her belief that "getting a high quality education helps people meet their full potential in life". From February 2020, Wishart also sat on the Scottish Parliament's Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee, taking over from
Mike Rumbles. In a letter to
Nicola Sturgeon in April 2020, Wishart suggested that the Shetland Islands could be "the ideal place to pilot an exit strategy from lockdown", which had been put in place in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Wishart cited as "encouraging" statements made by
Hugh Pennington,
emeritus professor at the
University of Aberdeen, who had noted that "there could soon be a case for a geographical lifting of restrictions – such as in some of the
Scottish islands and
the Highlands and
Grampian". Later that month, Wishart was appointed as a member of the Scottish Parliament's
COVID-19 Committee. At the
2021 Scottish Parliament election, Wishart was re-elected with a majority of 806 votes, the third smallest majority of that election. In May 2021, following the Scottish Parliament election, Wishart left the Education and Skills Committee, the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs committee, and the COVID-19 Committee, Wishart is a member of several Cross-Party Groups (CPGs) in the Scottish Parliament. Notably, she is Convener for the CPG on Brain Tumours and the CPG on Nordic Countries. Other CPGs on which she is either Deputy or Co-Convener are Crofting, Fisheries and Coastal Communities, Islands, Men's Violence Against Women and Children, Oil and Gas, Poverty, Space, and Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI). On 20 February 2025, Wishart announced she would stand down at the
2026 Scottish Parliament election. ==References==