John Lamont to resign Holyrood seat to focus on top Scottish Tory general election target

A Conservative MSP has gambled his political career by announcing he will stand down at Holyrood to focus on fighting his party’s top target seat in Scotland at the general election.

John Lamont, MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire in the Scottish Borders, will resign from the Scottish Parliament on May 4 to focus on ousting the SNP from a marginal Westminster seat.

It will be the fourth time he has contested the Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk constituency, which covers much of the same area as his Holyrood constituency. If he loses again, he will have no seat in either parliament.

The SNP’s Calum Kerr won the seat in the 2015 election by only 328 votes after Unionist supporters split between Mr Lamont and Michael Moore, the Liberal Democrat former Scottish Secretary.

With Mr Moore not standing this time, and Tory support surging amid strong opposition to Nicola Sturgeon’s plan for a second independence referendum, Conservatives insiders are optimistic about Mr Lamont’s prospects of victory.

He said it had been "a great privilege" to serve as the area’s MSP for the past decade and pledged to continue to "put local people before party politics" if elected as an MP.

Mr Lamont said: “This is one of the most important general elections Scotland has ever had. In the Borders, it will be straight fight between myself and the SNP.

"I have decided to stand down as an MSP to allow me to focus all of my energy on this important contest and to ensure that the electorate have a clear choice between the two contenders.” He said he was the best-placed candidate to “stop the SNP bandwagon”.

Ian Davidson, a former MP and chair of the Common Scottish affairs select committee, is standing for Labour and Catriona Bhatia, the daughter of former Liberal leader David Steel, is expected to be selected for the Liberal Democrats.

But Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, said voters in the Borders have a choice between Mr Lamont or, in Mr Kerr, “another nationalist who will continue to pursue the obsession with taking Scotland out of the United Kingdom.”

Ken Macintosh, Holyrood’s presiding officer, is expected to shortly set the date for the by-election for Mr Lamont’s vacated Scottish Parliament seat. It could be staged on the same day as the Westminster general election, June 8.

Mr Lamont made his announcement as a nationalist MP charged by the police with fraud confirmed she will not seek re-election in Glasgow East.

Natalie McGarry was elected as an SNP member in 2015 but resigned the party whip following the allegations, which she denies, and now sits as in independent.

Michelle Thomson, another nationalist MP who was forced to resign the SNP whip amid a police investigation into her property dealings, has already confirmed she is not standing in her Edinburgh West seat. She also denies wrongdoing.

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