CABINET MINISTER QUITTING HOLYROOD
Scotland’s longest-serving elected parliamentarian has announced she is stepping down from Holyrood next year.
Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham, the SNP MSP for Perthshire South & Kinross-shire, said: “After a quarter of a century as an elected politician, and with another election fast approaching, I have had to do some hard thinking.
“By the time of the next election, I will be less than two months away from my 70th birthday and, further, by the end of that parliamentary term, I would be nearly 75. This year, of all years, has made age a rather more relevant factor than it may otherwise have been.
“I have, accordingly, taken the very difficult decision to inform my local constituency association that I will not be seeking nomination as an SNP candidate for the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections.”
Cunningham was elected as MP for Perth & Kinross in 1995. After becoming an MSP in 1999, she stood down as an MP in 2001.
She thanked activists in her const it uenc y, saying: “They made history by making Perth & Kinross the first seat that the SNP would win at a by-election and hold at the subsequent general election, and they ensured that I became the longestserving current Scottish parliamentarian.”
Cunningham was SNP depute leader between 2000 and 2004, and ran against Alex Salmond when he was elected party leader that year.
She added: “It has been a massive honour to have represented my constituents in both Westminster and the Scottish Parliament for the past 25 years and to have been able to serve my country as a cabinet secretary in the Scottish Government.”
Cunningham is the latest in a string of SNP MSPs who have announced they won’t seek re- election next May, including Brexit Secretary Michael Russell, Communities and Local Government Secretary Aileen Campbell and ex-minister Bruce Crawford.