Murdo Fraser was born in Inverness in 1965 and educated at Inverness Royal Academy and thereafter at Aberdeen University, where he studied law. He worked as a solicitor in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, and prior to his election to the Scottish Parliament was an associate with Ketchen & Stevens WS in Edinburgh, specialising in commercial law. Murdo first became active in politics at Aberdeen University. He held office as Chairman of the Scottish Young Conservatives from 1989 to 1992, and thereafter became the first Scot to be elected Chairman of National Young Conservatives, a position he held for one year from 1991.
In the 1999 Scottish Parliament Election, Murdo stood as the Conservative candidate for North Tayside, and fought the constituency again at the 2001 General Election. He became a Member of the Scottish Parliament in August 2001 following the resignation of the previous List Member for Mid-Scotland and Fife, and was re-elected in 2003, 2007, 2011, 2016 and 2021. Murdo was Deputy Leader of the Scottish Conservatives from November 2005 to November 2011 and has served as spokesman on Education, Health, Economy and Finance. Murdo was delighted to be re-elected in 2021 and served for almost two years as Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery, sitting on the Parliament's Covid 19 Recovery Committee. He now serves as Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Business, Economic Growth and Tourism.
Murdo is a patron of the Scottish Asian Pakistani Foundation and of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, a member of the Scotland-Malawi Partnership and a former Board Member of Dundee University Students' Association. Publications include The Blue Book: Scottish Conservatism in the 21st Century (2006), and The Rivals: Montrose and Argyll and the struggle for Scotland (Birlinn, 2015).
Murdo lives in Perthshire with his wife and two children. His interests outside politics include hillwalking (he has climbed Kilimanjaro and more than half of Scotland's 284 Munros), football, classic cars, travel, and Scottish history.
