It has been an honour to serve you
Being the MSP for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley for the past five years has been an absolute privilege, however, I made the difficult decision to announce in August that I would not be seeking re-election in 2021.
I would be 72 by the end of the next Parliamentary term and while I have a great deal of energy left and more, I want to further our aim of independence. I think it is the right time to stand aside and let others have the opportunity to represent a beautiful part of Scotland.
It was a real honour when the First Minister asked me to be Scotland’s first Social Security Minister and I was privileged to help lay the foundations for a social security service, and I use the word service because we are about dignity and respect and I was immensely proud to do that.
It is, of course, this pandemic, the biggest peacetime challenge in our lifetime, that has been my biggest priority this last year.
I am extremely proud of how our NHS has responded to all these demands during this pandemic.
Every day I have seen services provided to our population delivered with compassion, resilience, determination and a focus on what matters to the patient and I thank all of our health and social care staff for everything that they do.
In these final few weeks ahead I will continue my focus on the work we need to do to meet the challenges facing us all in dealing with COVID-19, in remobilising our NHS and social care services to the greatest extent possible and in rolling out our biggest ever vaccination programme.
I have been hugely supported by people right across Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, by my hard working constituency office team and I give my grateful thanks to all of you.