FURTHER evidence of a changing of the old guard at Holyrood emerged yesterday when it was announced that Scottish Conservative Highlands and Islands MSP Mary Scanlon is to stand down at next May’s elections.
The Tories’ spokeswoman on education and lifelong learning, and deputy convener of the Public Audit Committee, said she was retiring 17 years after she was first elected to spend more time with her family – her granddaughter Alba has been fighting leukaemia for the past two years.
Scanlon follows Nanette Milne, Gavin Brown and Alex Fergusson as Conservative MSPs who have already announced they will be standing down next May. In addition, presiding officer Tricia Marwick, Labour’s MSP for Leith Malcolm Chisholm, the SNP’s Kenny MacAskill, Rob Gibson, Dave Thompson and Local Government Minister Marco Biagi are also standing down, as is Housing Minister Margaret Burgess.
There is still a little way to go before the 2011 record of 20 MSPs standing down is reached, but Scanlon’s departure highlights the fact that some of the stalwarts of Holyrood since the Parliament was reconvened in 1999 are to depart.
Fergusson, MacAskill, the SNP’s Adam Ingram, and Labour’s Duncan McNeil are all from the “class of 99” and are standing down.
Scanlon was elected in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011, but spent a year out of Parliament in 2006 to stand in the Moray by-election. She said: “It was a great honour to be one of the 1999 intakes of MSPs. This was a historic occasion and a great privilege to be part of it.
“I continue to enjoy every moment in the Scottish Parliament and intend to work right up to next year’s election representing the issues facing people in the Highlands and Islands.
“Watching my granddaughter’s chemotherapy treatment for leukaemia over the last two years brought home the precious time we have with our families as they grow up. Alba is now eight and was diagnosed with leukaemia at six. I will miss the cut and thrust of politics and will also miss my colleagues but retirement will allow me the time to see more of my family.”
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said Scanlon had been a fantastic servant to the Parliament and described her as “a real grafter and a fearless champion of the Highlands”.
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