THE SNP MSP James Dornan has announced he will not be seeking re-selection for the next Scottish Parliament election in May 2021.
Dornan was first elected to Holyrood in 2011, and throughout his period in office has been a senior government whip and convener of both the Education Committee and the Local Government and Communities Committee.
Over recent years, the Glasgow Cathart MSP has spearheaded a campaign to address sectarianism in Scotland, frequently resulting in threats being made to him over social media and in person.
In January this year, he wrote an article for the Sunday National to say he was giving up his fight as he felt fellow politicians were “too scared” to get involved.
Announcing that he was standing down, Dornan said yesterday: “After many months of consideration, I have decided not to stand in next year’s Scottish Parliament elections. It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve as the MSP for my home constituency of Glasgow Cathcart – representing the area I grew up in and where I continue to live.
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“It has been an immense pleasure and a joy to stand up for and help the great people of the constituency for the past nine years, but I think next year is the right time for me to move on.
“I’ve had the privilege of being a senior government whip and convener of both the Education Committee and the Local Government and Communities Committee. I also had the great honour of being the leader of the opposition in Glasgow City Council before being elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2011.”
He added: “I am looking forward to having more time to spend with my partner, catch up with my family and do some of the things I’ve been putting off over the years whilst campaigning for Scottish independence as an elected representative.
“I look forward to the day – and it is coming soon – when the people who follow me in this wonderful seat of Glasgow Cathcart are representing it in a parliament with all the powers of an independent country.
“I will continue to work tirelessly for my constituents over the next year and I look forward to being able to thank many of them, and my fantastic colleagues, for all their support in making this the best job in the world.”
Dornan dropped a bid to become SNP deputy leader to focus on addressing the issue of sectarianism and last year launched proposals for a crackdown on disorder at football matches.
But, writing in the Sunday National in January, he said he was giving up his convenorship of a Holyrood cross-party group he set up to combat sectarianism and attacked politicians, the media and the sport of football for failing to help tackle the issue.
He also described abuse he had received, saying he would continue to put up with the attacks if he believed there was a will to deal with the problem.
He said: “There you have it, a media, football clubs and authorities complicit in the continuation of sectarian abuse and politicians too scared to get involved ... I’ve had seven years of abuse, insults, threats of physical violence ... on social media, via phone, email, letter and by people coming to my office to physically have a go at me. I’d have continued to put up with that except for three things.
“Firstly, there is a sizeable chunk of people out there so blinded by their own hatred and bigotry that they can’t see any criticism of their side as being justified and therefore attack mercilessly and constantly without listening.
“Also, it appears that the bodies I have mentioned previously, along with too many of the public, are just happy to pretend it doesn’t really exist as a problem and finally, partly because of the previous point, I feel I’ve been fighting a one-man battle against this with extremely limited support.”
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Dornan last year unveiled plans for a Member’s Bill to introduce a licensing system for football grounds.
Under his proposals sanctions ranged from fines to ground closures. He said he hoped the Scottish Government will bring forward legislation Holyrood can rally round.
Trouble broke out in Glasgow last summer, leading the council to ban six marches by loyalist and republican groups. It followed disturbances in the city over the previous two weekends.
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