A Glasgow SNP MSP has had a change of heart over standing down from Holyrood ahead of next year's election.

James Dornan, who represents Cathcart, announced in March he would be retiring from the Scottish Parliament, but has now decided to make a fresh bid to fight the seat again in 2021.

He has told party members in his constituency of his change of heart as well as officials in party headquarters of his renewed wish to put himself forward as their candidate again citing a desire to get on with a high volume of work he had received during the coronavirus lockdown.

"In March I emailed you to say I intended to retire as your MSP at the forthcoming election. Since then things have changed for us all thanks to Covid-19 and the accompanying lockdown," he said.

"This has brought with it an overwhelming amount of work, much of it new and unusual, for my staff and I to deal with and leaves what I consider to be some unfinished business with constituents, businesses and organisations I have worked closely with over the last nine years.

"A lot of experience is due to leave the parliament in May and I have decided that, your support forthcoming of course, I want to be given the chance to continue to use the experience I have gained in 14 years of elected politics and, once again, represent the constituency for the next Parliamentary session. To that end I contacted SNP HQ last night to inform them that I wish to be considered for reselection to the Glasgow Cathcart Parliamentary seat."

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Dornan was first elected to Holyrood in 2011, and throughout his period in office has been a senior government whip and convener of both the Education Committee and the Local Government and Communities Committee.

Over recent years, the Glasgow Cathcart MSP has spearheaded a campaign to address sectarianism in Scotland, frequently resulting in threats being made to him over social media and in person.

In January this year, he wrote an article for the Sunday National to say he was giving up his fight as he felt fellow politicians were “too scared” to get involved.

Dornan dropped a bid to become SNP deputy leader in 2018 to focus on addressing the issue of sectarianism and last year launched proposals for a crackdown on disorder at football matches.