Tracy Gilbert is the Labour MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, the first Labour member for the area since Mark Lazarowicz lost it to the SNP in 2010. She grew up in the Midlothian mining town of Penicuik in the 1980s, left school just before turning 16, has no university degree, and joined Edinburgh City Council on a Youth Training Scheme. "The only thing I knew I didn't want to do when I left school was work in an office," she has said, "so obviously I went to work in an office." She has lived in Leith all her adult life and been a Labour member since 1997.

Her career was built in the trade union movement, from the shop floor up. After working as a housing benefits officer for Edinburgh City Council, she became a full-time lay officer for UNISON, trained at the TUC Organising Academy, and joined USDAW as an organiser in 2000. She rose to Deputy Regional Secretary in 2017 and, in 2021, Regional Secretary for Scotland, the first woman to hold the role, representing more than 37,000 workers across retail, distribution, manufacturing and call centres. She represented USDAW on the Scottish Government's Retail Strategy and chaired the People Strand of its Industrial Leadership Group for retail.

She introduced the Absent Voting (Elections in Scotland and Wales) Bill as a Private Member's Bill in 2024, has campaigned against commercial sexual exploitation, and has argued in debate against gender self-identification for transgender people. She was elected in 2024 with 20,805 votes (42.1 percent) and a majority of 7,268 (14.7 percent), describing Edinburgh as "a tale of two cities" stretching from the New Town and Stockbridge to Pilton, Muirhouse and Granton. She sits on the Procedure and International Development Committees.

Gilbert's strengths include a mining-town upbringing, leaving school before 16 on a YTS, the housing benefits and UNISON background, 25 years in the trade union movement, being the first woman USDAW Regional Secretary in Scotland, 37,000 members represented, the Scottish Government Retail Strategy and Industrial Leadership Group roles, lifelong residence in Leith, the Absent Voting Private Member's Bill, the commercial sexual exploitation campaign, and a 14.7 percent majority. Her weaknesses include no ministerial office, no major legislative achievement yet from the PMB, a gender self-identification position that may alienate parts of a progressive constituency, and the structural risk that a seat held by the SNP from 2010 to 2024 could return to them. With 25 years of trade union experience, Scottish Government advisory roles, and the first-female-Regional-Secretary distinction, she carries more institutional weight than a "long-serving trade unionist" label conveys. Whether the sexual exploitation campaign, the retail workers' advocacy and the "tale of two cities" translate into visible delivery on housing, poverty and services in Pilton, Muirhouse and Granton will determine whether this career grows beyond its current scope.