Fourth candidate joins race for Holyrood seat

A fourth potential candidate is hoping to stand for the SNP in Stirling ahead of next year’s Scottish Parliament elections.

Sameeha Rehman, pictured, is currently parliamentary assistant to Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill MP Steven Bonnar.

She joins Stirling councillors Evelyn Tweed and Susan Mcgill, and Clackmannanshire Council leader Ellen Forson, who have also expressed their intention to succeed Bruce Crawford MSP.

The 21-year-old saidt this week that her family ran a convenience store in Baker Street from 2000-2010 and she is currently involved in supporting refugees and asylum seekers in Stirling.

She said: “Stirling is a city very close to my heart. I have spent much of my childhood in Stirling where my family ran a business, and have a lot of family and friends still residing there. I currently devote my weekends supporting asylum seekers and refugees as part of the Outdoors For You social enterprise I run.

Sameeha has a Law, Politics and International Relations degree from Strathclyde University and is a volunteer with the Scottish Refugee Council.

She lives in Stepps and is a director for the Glasgow English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Forum, a community council secretary and a volunteer tutor for the Volunteer Tutors Organisation.

Sameeha said: “I am utterly scunnered and sickened by Tory austerity policies that have continued to drive economic decline and social exclusion.

“If elected I will be committed to reducing this divide, providing better local employment opportunities, encouraging rural empowerment, campaigning for affordable housing whilst protecting the greenbelt, and ending the need for foodbanks in the city.”

Stirling SNP Campaign Committee convener Gerry Mclaughlan said: “We’ve a range of excellent potential candidates and I look forward to the discussion with all of them about how we can work together to make the Stirling area an even better place to live, work, and grow up.”