I’ll stand up for people of Stirling

I am honoured and humbled to have been elected to serve as the Member of Parliament for the Stirling Constituency at last week’s General Election. My team and I ran a campaign with a positive vision for the Stirling area and for Scotland.

Over the 16 years that I have represented Scotland as an MEP in Brussels, I have worked closely with local MSPs Bruce Crawford and Keith Brown, as well as with those on the local council too – including Stirling Council leader Scott Farmer. It is with a heavy heart that I leave European Parliament, but in terms of our current political climate, the battle to protect Scotland’s future is with Westminster, not with Brussels.

And that work has begun right away. I travelled to London by train on Sunday evening in order to be at my new place of work first thing Monday morning. This week, new MPs will be sworn into the House of Commons, and at the time of writing the Government is expected to bring forward a Queen’s Speech as well as an EU Withdrawal Bill.

Of course, the Tories now have the parliamentary majority that Boris Johnson needed in order to force through his deeply damagingWithdrawal Agreement from the EU. It was a future that Scotland rejected at last Thursday’s election, yet one where Scotland’s voice, yet again, appears not to matter to those in charge in Westminster.

I have maintained throughout the election campaign that my first order of business would be to try to stop Brexit, and where there is opportunity to do so, I will pursue it. I have been involved, in one way or another, in doing so on four separate occasions this year. This has included being part of a cross-party effort in taking the UK Government all the way to the European Court of Justice to prove that the UK can, if it so chooses, cancel Article 50: the formal process for leaving the EU.

Whilst this constituency voted 68 per cent to Remain in the EU, I fully recognise that this does not represent the view of everybody. However, nobody voted in 2016 for the cliff-edge direction of travel that Boris Johnson is taking

As the UK appears set for further political and constitutional turmoil, it is with respect and courtesy that we must all conduct ourselves

the UK. The falsehood of Mr Johnson’s election tagline: “Get Brexit done”, will be revealed if the UK really does leave the EU on January 31. This would not be an end to the matter, but rather the beginning of a new chapter of a UK political crisis, reigniting the chaos of the past few months at the end of the so-called transition period.

I have spoken to people and businesses up and down this vast constituency. Stirling prospers through its ability to do business with our overseas neighbours, and local companies are worried about how Brexit, in any form, will impact this.

That is why I remain passionate about this generation-defining issue, and I will always stand up for the best interests of the people of Stirling and the people of Scotland. It is why also that I maintain that Scotland’s future should always be decided by the people of Scotland, not by a chaotic Boris Johnson government.

My approach to politics is in line with David Hume’s maxim that the truth emerges from an honest disagreement between friends. As the UK appears set for further political and constitutional turmoil, it is with respect and courtesy that we must all conduct ourselves. I ask only to serve, and you as a constituent can judge me by my deeds in office.

Meantime, my official parliamentary email address has been set up, and I am in the process of putting together a brand new constituency office in Stirling. Constituents can contact me via Alyn.Smith.MP@