Sandra Osborne  Sandra Currie Osborne (née Clark, born 23 February 1956) is a Scottish Labour politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock from the 2005 to 2015 general elections. She was first elected as MP for the Ayr constituency in 1997, and resigned from a government job in 2003 over the Iraq War. She was a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee from 2005–10 and again from 2013. She was a member of the Defence Select Committee 2010-13 and was a member of the Council of Europe. Osborne was born and brought up in the deprived Ferguslie Park district, in Paisley. She was educated at Camphill Secondary School in Paisley. She later attended evening classes before going on to Jordanhill College where she gained the Diploma in Community Education. After working as a community worker in Glasgow she moved to Ayrshire, where she spent fourteen years working as a counsellor with Women's Aid, based in Kilmarnock. During that time, she also studied part-time at the University of Strathclyde where she graduated with a Master of Science in Equality and Discrimination. In 1997, she was one of the shortlisted finalists in the Scottish Woman of the Year Awards ("Glasgow Evening Times") nominated for her work with abused women. Osborne was the councillor for Whitletts on Kyle and Carrick District Council and South Ayrshire Council where she also served as Convener of Community Services (Housing and Social Work). She is a member of the trade union Unite (formerly TGWU) and has been active in the Labour Party since 1976, serving for a time as Ayr CLP Secretary. In 1983, she was a member of the Scottish contingent on the People's March for Jobs who walked from Glasgow to London. She was selected as a Labour candidate in Ayr from an all-women shortlist. In May 1997, she was elected as MP for the Ayr constituency, becoming Ayr's first-ever Labour MP and first ever female MP. She was re-elected at the 2001 general election. Osborne served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Helen Liddell, the Secretary of State for Scotland, from June 2002 until she stepped down in March 2003 over her opposition to going to war with Iraq. She believed this should not have gone ahead without a second UN resolution. She had previously served as PPS to George Foulkes, Minister of State at the Scotland Office and to his predecessor in that post, Brian Wilson.