Westminster View - Thank you for the privilege to serve

You notice it driving along the coastline as the North Sea stretches beside you, walking through the centre of Arbroath, speaking to residents in Broughty Ferry, or stopping in Whitfield and Fintry, Letham or Carnoustie, where everyone seems to know someone who knows your business before you do.

It is a constituency of contrasts and connections - harbour town and suburb, coastal community and countryside, old industries, and new opportunities - but what binds it together is a strong sense of place and people who care deeply about where they live.

Representing Arbroath and Broughty Ferry at Westminster has been an immense privilege. I am grateful every day for the opportunity to have served. Regardless of how people voted, I was grateful for the way in which everyone engaged with me.

I am delighted to have been elected to the Scottish Parliament by the people of Dundee City East (an area I know well since much of it is contained in the Westminster constituency), but it is fair to say I will miss the parts not in the Holyrood constituency, now ably served by Lloyd Melville and Heather Anderson.

I am not sure I will miss Westminster - many of the people are wonderful, especially the staff and yes, colleagues from across the political spectrum. Yet it is full of idiosyncrasies and oddities: rituals few can fully explain, language borrowed from another century, and procedures that often seem designed to preserve convention as much as deliver change. Yet for all its antiquity, it remains one of the great stages upon which modern politics is contested – for good or ill.

Now comes a different chapter: from the adversarial green benches to the Scottish Parliament’s hemicycle - deliberately designed to encourage scrutiny, dialogue, and cross-party working. Where Westminster often rewards confrontation, Holyrood was founded on the hope of doing politics differently.

But institutions only matter if they remain connected to the people they serve.

There is always something grounding about the first constituency surgery or visit after an election. The grandeur of parliamentary buildings fades quickly when you are sitting in a local hall hearing concerns about buses, rising household bills or worries over the future of a town centre. Public service becomes tangible in those moments - less about speeches and headlines, more about trust, patience and showing up.

This area has a proud tradition of SNP representation. From Gordon Wilson and Andrew Welsh to Mike Weir, Stewart Hosie and Dave Doogan, generations of elected representatives have carried the voices of these communities into Parliament, rooted in a belief that Scotland is best served when decisions affecting Scotland are made here. To follow in that tradition is both a privilege and a responsibility.

Whoever succeeds in representing Arbroath and Broughty Ferry will inherit both and get one of the best jobs in politics. Should voters choose her, Lara Bird would be a worthy successor: locally raised, deeply rooted in the area, and a passionate voice for progress. She would bring energy, compassion, and a strong commitment to standing up for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry.

Whoever is elected will have my full support for an orderly transition. Because politics is always, ultimately, about what comes next.

The next generation of voices will be vital - not only to serving communities like these, but helping write the next chapters of Scotland’s journey. Whether in Westminster or Holyrood, the purpose of public service remains the same: to stand firmly on the side of the communities you represent - and always on Scotland’s side.