In the
2012 South Lanarkshire Council election, Lennon was elected to represent the
Hamilton North and East ward. In the
2016 Scottish Parliament election, she was second on
Scottish Labour's Central Scotland regional list and was elected as a
Member of the Scottish Parliament. Shortly after being elected she was appointed by leader
Kezia Dugdale as Shadow Minister for Inequalities, a role in which she campaigned to raise awareness about the need for women to check themselves for signs of breast cancer. In the
2017 Scottish Labour leadership election, Lennon nominated fellow Central Scotland MSP and left-wing ally
Richard Leonard. In December 2017, Leonard announced his new
frontbench in which she was promoted to
Spokesperson for Communities and Local Government. In November 2017, Lennon went public with how she was sexually assaulted by a Labour colleague at a party in 2013, while other colleagues brushed off the incident. Following revelations of similar incidents within the party, she argued that the party and British politics had an institutional problem with sexual assault and harassment. On 6 September 2018, Lennon made a speech in which she spoke of a constituent who had committed suicide shortly after Christmas 2017. The constituent pleaded with health services for help eight times in the six days directly before he died, but was either turned away or referred elsewhere. Lennon asked
Nicola Sturgeon to take urgent action to review suicide prevention procedures in NHS Lanarkshire. In an October 2018 Shadow Cabinet reshuffle, Lennon was again promoted to
Spokesperson for Health and Sport, replacing Richard Leonard's former leadership rival
Anas Sarwar. She used the position to campaign for institutions to provide free
menstrual hygiene products, to tackle
period poverty.
The Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act was enacted in November 2020. Along with
Neil Findlay, Lennon abstained on an SNP government bill in favour of a
second Scottish independence referendum. This was against their party's whip, which was to vote against the bill. Following the resignation of Richard Leonard, Lennon joined the
2021 Scottish Labour leadership election. During the campaign, Lennon said she would not oppose a
second Scottish independence referendum although would argue for an alternative
Devo Max option. She commented that the
war on drugs had failed and drug laws should be devolved to Scotland and drugs decriminalised. She also said people across the UK "deserve a public health approach that meets their needs". She pledged to end the care home "dementia tax" and said Scottish Labour with her as leader would commit to reviewing social care policies to ensure people with advanced dementia receive equal treatment. She has backed Alzheimer Scotland's Fair Dementia Care campaign. She was defeated by her rival Anas Sarwar. In 2020, Lennon was selected as the
Scottish Labour Co-operative candidate in
Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse in the
2021 Scottish Parliament election. This was the first time she had stood as a joint
Scottish Labour and
Co-operative candidate. She was defeated by incumbent
Christina McKelvie of the SNP, but was re-elected via the Central region list. In the wake of
anti-abortion protests in Glasgow in the spring of 2022, Lennon called for an emergency summit in Holyrood. Lennon was one of 5 Labour MSPs who was absent for a Scottish Parliament vote calling for the UK Government to reverse its decision to means-test the Winter Fuel Payment. == Personal life ==