Glasgow councillor He was a member of
Glasgow District Council from 1988 until 1996 and served as Convenor of the Arts and Culture Committee, which developed the
Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art and initiated plans for the large-scale redevelopment of
Kelvingrove Gallery in Glasgow. McAveety served as Leader of the
Glasgow City Council from 1997 until 1999, during which time he initiated the largest-ever investment package for Glasgow Secondary Schools and oversaw the removal of housing debt for City Housing Tenants. He also established the first ever Local Authority Standards Committee, which was the influence for the establishment of the
Standards Commission for Scotland by the Scottish Parliament, a few years later.
Scottish Parliament When elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999, he was appointed Deputy Minister for Local Government in the
Scottish Executive and served in that position until 2000. He returned to office as Deputy
Minister for Health and Community Care in May 2002. As Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport following the
2003 Scottish Parliament election, he established the
National Theatre of Scotland, which has resulted in the award-winning play,
Black Watch and other productions. In his capacity as Sports Minister, McAveety advocated using sports investment as an opportunity for community regeneration and he oversaw Scotland's largest ever investment in national sports infrastructure, being developed in the East End of Glasgow. He also conducted a successful campaign to bring the headquarters of
Sportscotland, the national sports agency, to the East End of Glasgow. In 2004, he was mocked by a Sheriff Court judge after charges against two anti-war protesters were dropped after an altercation with the two protesters and a Labour council candidate. He has written in praise of
David Bowie in the
Scotsman newspaper and he wrote a regular feature for
Holyrood Magazine, which celebrated and recommended his favourite albums. In April 2005, the
Scotsman newspaper dubbed him the "Daddy of Parliamentary Pop". This was in reference to his speech in the Parliamentary Chamber in support of a motion recognising
Franz Ferdinand for that band's contribution to
Scottish popular music and
culture. McAveety has served as a board member for the Arches Theatre Company in Glasgow, Enterprise Scotland and the
Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre. From January 2009 he served on the boards of the
Scottish Youth Theatre and
Fields in Trust Scotland (formerly National Playing Fields Association). In the
2011 Scottish Parliament election, he lost his seat to the SNP's
John Mason but he made an early return to politics in May 2012, when he was elected as a Councillor for the
Shettleston ward of Glasgow City Council. On 10 September 2015, McAveety was elected leader of Glasgow City Council after
Gordon Matheson stood down, thus returning to a post he had held sixteen years earlier. He was succeeded by
Susan Aitken on 4 May 2017. On 15 April 2025, McAveety was arrested and charged with electoral fraud relating to the 2022 council election. == See also ==