GLASGOW, 22 December (H.S.): Scottish Labour MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy has announced that she will not seek re-election to the Scottish Parliament next year, saying she does not want her long-standing friendship with a convicted sex offender to become a distraction from her party’s work.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Duncan-Glancy confirmed that she has withdrawn as Labour’s candidate for the newly created Glasgow Kelvin and Maryhill constituency at the next Holyrood election.

She said that, although stepping aside was “a very difficult decision”, she did not wish a “personal friendship” to overshadow the campaign or the party’s priorities.

Duncan-Glancy, who has represented the Glasgow region at Holyrood since 2021, described serving the city in parliament as “the greatest honour” of her life and pledged to continue campaigning for the election of a Scottish Labour government in 2026.

The row centres on Duncan-Glancy’s continued friendship with Sean Morton, a former Labour councillor in Moray who admitted in 2017 to possessing indecent images of children and extreme pornography.

Morton, who represented the Fochabers and Lhanbryde ward, was placed on the sex offenders register and ordered to carry out unpaid work as part of his sentence. The Daily Record recently reported that Duncan-Glancy had maintained contact with Morton years after his conviction, prompting questions about her judgement and the appropriateness of the relationship for a senior opposition figure.

Morton has previously claimed that the images were sent to him anonymously, but the court accepted his guilty pleas to two indecent image offences.

Earlier this month, Duncan-Glancy resigned as Scottish Labour’s education spokesperson after acknowledging what she called a “serious error of judgement” in relation to her ongoing association with Morton.

In her resignation letter to party leader Anas Sarwar, she accepted that “recent stories about relationships in my personal life” had revealed a lapse in professional judgement that made it untenable to continue on the front bench.

Scottish Labour subsequently appointed Paul O’Kane as shadow cabinet secretary for education and equalities, signalling the party’s determination to draw a line under the controversy at the senior level.

At that stage, the party said Duncan-Glancy had “done the right thing” by stepping down from the education role and indicated it considered the matter closed.

Following Sunday’s announcement, a Scottish Labour spokesperson confirmed that Duncan-Glancy has now also withdrawn as a parliamentary candidate for Glasgow Kelvin and Maryhill. The spokesperson said she had chosen to step aside because she did not want recent media coverage to “become a distraction from the work of the party or its priorities”. The selection process in Glasgow Kelvin and Maryhill will be reopened, with local party members expected to choose a new candidate in the coming weeks as Labour seeks to maintain momentum ahead of the next Holyrood poll.

Despite the setback, senior figures are keen to keep the focus on Labour’s bid to return to government in Scotland after more than a decade in opposition.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar