James Kelly MSP

The key political event in Rutherglen and Cambuslang last week was the local South Lanarkshire Council elections.

I want to congratulate all the candidates from all parties who were elected in the area.

It is an honour to be chosen to represent your local community.

Local councillors play a key role in in dealing with local issues and representing their constituents.

I also want to pay tribute to two long standing councillors who were unsuccessful in last week’s elections.

Claire McColl and Gordon Clark have represented Cambuslang West and Rutherglen North and Central on the council for the last 10 years.

I have known them both for many years before we were all elected to our various positions.

Although we disagree strongly on politics, I have always had a good relationship with both Claire and Gordon.

They have served their communities well and I wish them all the best for the future.

I also would like to extend my good wishes to my Labour colleagues who stood down at these elections – Russell and Pam Clearie, Richard Tullett and Brain and Denis McKenna.

We have seen two new faces join the Labour team in Margaret Walker for Cambuslang West and Margaret Cowie in Rutherglen South.

I have every confidence that they will both make outstanding contributions in their local areas.

The results were looked at very closely.

It is now absolutely clear that from the results in Rutherglen and Cambuslang and across Scotland mean that the SNP surge is over.

In the Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency, the SNP vote was 38 per cent.

This represents a fall from the 52 per cent the party achieved at the general election in 2015.

Labour were just seven per cent behind on 31 per cent.

Moving forward it is all to play for in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency in the general election next month.

So it is on to the campaign trail – again!