A well known political activist and campaigner of many years’ standing, Struan knocked Labour into third place in the North East Scotland European by-election in November 1998 then went on to top the Tory Euro Candidates List, winning one of the eight Scottish seats in the European Parliament in the June 1999 Euro elections . He was elected President of the Fisheries Committee of the European Parliament in January 2002 and was re-elected to the European Parliament in June 2004 when he was appointed Conservative Front-Bench Spokesman on Fisheries and Deputy Spokesman on Agriculture. In February 2005 he was elected Vice President of the ruling EPP-ED Group of 267 MEPs and Chairman of the ED Group of 40 MEPs.
Struan is a well-known broadcaster and author of frequent feature articles in the press. He has campaigned widely to attract aid for the victims of the Soviet nuclear testing programme in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan where he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate and the Freedom of the City of Semipalatinsk for his work. In 2004 he won a $50,000 prize for his entry in an International Essay Competition sponsored by the US-based John Templeton Foundation, for a feature about the suffering of the people of Semipalatinsk. He donated the entire $50,000 to Mercy Corps Scotland to assist with their work in Semipalatinsk. He has also fought to ban the importation of cat and dog fur into the EU, from Asia, and to stop the one billion Euro annual subsidies to EU tobacco growers.
Struan is married to Pat, an editor with BBC Radio and has two sons - Ryan, who graduated in politics from Newcastle University and works for Newsbase, a Scottish-based international e-media company and Gregor, who graduated in English and Film Studies at Glasgow University in 2002 and is a creative writer with a major Scottish advertising agency.