Four more bidding for Holyrood seat

Lib/Dems, Greens, SSP and Reformon by-election ballot

- JUDITH TONNER

Four more candidates have been announced for the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election on June 5, ahead of nominations closing on Thursday afternoon.

Reform, the Liberal Democrats, Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and Scottish Greens have all named the representatives who will appear on the ballot paper as voters go to the polls to choose the constituency's new MSP, following the death in March of long-serving local representative Christina McKelvie.

They include a current South Lanarkshire councillor, and the latest developments in the election campaign bring the number of candidates announced to seven, with the SNP, Labour and Conservatives already having confirmed their election plans.

Councillor Ross Lambie is standing for Reform, and says he is “honoured to have been selected” for the party he joined in March from the Conservatives.

The Clydesdale South representative has been a councillor for the past three years and has been busy campaigning across the constituency including with party colleague Thomas Kerr, the Glasgow councillor.

He said in a social media video: “We've already been out knocking doors and the message coming back loud and clear so far is everybody is sick to the back teeth of the same old Scottish politicians. People are starting to turn to Reform.

“The polls are showing that because we understand that people's lives urgently need to start improving now and they can see that we have the guts to take the big decisions. The political establishment in Scotland are terrified of us because they realise people are starting to find them out”.

Sadly missed Christina McKelvie