SENIOR SNP activist Toni Giugliano has thrown his hat into the ring to be selected as his party’s candidate to challenge Scottish Labour’s deputy leader for her seat at next year’s Holyrood elections.

The 35-year-old wants to take Jackie Baillie’s Dumbarton constituency in a bid to help deliver an SNP majority government and a second independence referendum. Baillie has held the seat since 1999 but has seen her huge majority in that election of 4758 votes slashed to just 109 in 2016.

Along with East Lothian and Edinburgh Southern, Dumbarton is one of just three first past the post seats currently held by Richard Leonard’s party in the Scottish Parliament.

Giugliano is a first generation Italian Scot and EU migrant who works as a senior policy manager for one of Scotland’s leading mental health charities.

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“I really want to unseat Jackie Baillie. I believe the SNP should have a European national to stand for the Scottish Parliament at a time when EU nationals are being treated with contempt by the Tories, by Westminster, having to prove how long they’ve been in this country and what have been their activities, despite contributing so much,” he said.

“As a result of the contempt they have been treated with, many are coming to the independence cause and I believe we need to embrace that. I believe electing a EU national to the Scottish Parliament sends a signal about what sort of country we would be with independence – open for business, tolerant and diverse.”

Baillie was the campaign director for the anti-independence Better Together organisation ahead of the 2014 referendum, where she worked alongside the Tories and the LibDems.

She remains a strong opponent of independence and earlier this year defeated the Corbynite councillor Matt Kerr in the party’s deputy leadership contest.

She received the support from 60% of constituency Labour parties, 60% of nominating councillors from across Scotland, and 92% of nominating parliamentarians. She was also backed by the GMB, USDAW, the Jewish Labour Movement and the Scottish Co-op Party.

Referring to Baillie’s work with the Tories in the Better Together campaign, Giugliano said: “I have a strong record of campaigning and that is why I am putting myself forward. There are other constituencies that the SNP already hold in the west of Scotland which I could have put myself forward for but I relish the opportunity to take on a Labour politician who has defended the Tories and made excuses for the Tories.”

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He added that he believed Baillie’s anti-independence views put her out of step with the majority of her constituents who voted Yes in 2014.

Currently living in Glasgow, Giugliano has strong family connections to the Dumbarton constituency. His grandparents immigrated separately from Liguria in Italy in the 1950s to Helensburgh where they met each other. They later married in Balloch.

Giugliano began his political activism through the Young European Movement (YEM) and was elected YEM President 2005.

The SNP had planned to have all Holyrood candidates in place by spring but the selection process was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

It is expected that all contenders will be unveiled at the party’s virtual conference in October.