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Daily Record
Daily Record
Politics
Andrew Quinn

Former SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford to stand down at next election

Former SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford will stand down at the next election.

The MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber has said that he will not stand for re-election but will continue his role as the First Minister's business ambassador.

Blackford was replaced as the leader of the party's Commons group in December by Stephen Flynn. He had been in the role for five years.

He was first elected as an MP in 2015, taking former Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy's seat.

Blackford said that he had "thought long and hard about whether to offer myself as a candidate again."

He said he would now be focusing on his business ambassador role and that he was looking "forward to playing my part in the continuing campaign for Scottish Independence and supporting our first minister and the SNP as we go forward to the next election and beyond."

Blackford was a strong ally of former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and backed Humza Yousaf in the SNP leadership election earlier this year.

Current leader Flynn thanked Blackford, calling him a party "stalwart". Flynn also said the former Westminster leader "will be sorely missed by his constituents and colleagues when he stands down as an MP but I am confident that he will have a key role in continuing the campaign for Scotland to become an independent country."

Blackford has been involved in the SNP for decades, having been party treasurer until he was removed in 2000. He had a difficult relationship with former leader Alex Salmond and was viewed to be a critic of his.

He unsuccessfully stood in Ayr in the 1997 election and in Paisley in a by-election in the same year before winning his seat 18 years later.

He became the party's Westminster leader in 2017 after Angus Robertson lost his seat.

The 62-year-old worked as a banker before becoming an MP.

Blackford came under fire for dealing with the allegations that chief whip Patrick Grady had sexually harassed a staff member.

A leaked recording revealed that he encouraged MPs to support Grady.

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