A veteran politician, who won the lottery in 2013, quipped he doesn't "live in a castle on a hill" as he spoke about his credibility as leader of the Labour group in Renfrewshire.
Councillor Iain McMillan, who was voted in at the group's AGM earlier this month, is focused on holding the SNP council administration to account – insisting they need to be aware of the grave situation facing people amid soaring food and energy costs.
The elected member for Johnstone South and Elderslie, who was a councillor from 1995 until 2017, has returned to local politics after five years away from the local authority.
He said: "The reality is we've got raging inflation. Wages are not keeping up with inflation, prices are going through the roof, electricity is going through the roof, gas is going through the roof.
"It's a real, real problem. I was only a wee boy when inflation hit in the 70s, but it can be absolutely devastating for people, particularly those on a fixed income or a lower income.
"For me that's the priorities for the administration and we will be holding them to account, making sure they face up to the realities of life."
He hit the headlines nine years ago when he bought a winning lottery ticket from Morrisons supermarket in Johnstone and bagged £2,058,662.
Asked whether he was concerned about constituents or indeed political colleagues having an opinion on the matter, Councillor McMillan wasn't fazed by the prospect.
He said: "When I was asked to consider standing again, that was at the back of my mind – how credible will I be because of the lottery win?
"I chapped an awful lot of doors, went out with thousands of leaflets, was out and about for six or seven weeks and do you know how many people mentioned the lottery win? Nobody. Absolutely nobody.
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"I was expecting some folk to say, 'you won the lottery, what do you know about anything?' That never happened. I don't think that's an issue.
"It was nine years ago and I don't live in a castle on a hill, looking down on everybody, I'm still the same Iain McMillan as I was nine years ago.
"I still go for a pint, I still go and see Rangers, I still hang about the streets talking to folk, I'm the same person.
"If you saw me today, I'm sitting here with a pair of jeans on and a retro Tottenham strip."
Councillor McMillan concedes he is in the fortunate position of being able to dedicate all of his waking hours to representing his community.
"I'm in a lucky position," he added. "I don't need to work, so I'm a full time councillor.
"I was still doing work last night at 11pm, I started at 9am yesterday, I had a short break taking football training, so I was working for near enough 14 hours yesterday. That doesn't faze me at all.
"Winning that money it's made me very lucky in that I don't have to spend 40 hours a week working to earn a living. People know I'll be contactable all the time."
The Labour group returned 15 councillors during the council election – two more than their total in 2017.
But Councillor McMillan has his sights set on spearheading a return to the top for the Labour group.
They haven't been in power in Renfrewshire since the 2012 to 2017 administration, before losing ground to the SNP thereafter.
"It might sound a bit far-fetched but our campaign for the next elections has started," Councillor McMillan said.
"We need to make sure that we build – yes it was great getting an extra two councillors, but we don't want to rest on that.
"We want to form administration, we want to put Labour values at the heart of the council.
"The long term game is to get back in control."
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