Glasgow Labour councillor James Adams has announced his bid to become an MSP with a pledge to refresh his party’s “frayed” relationship with charities.
The 39-year-old, who is a Senior Policy and External Affairs Manager with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) Scotland, is hoping to be elected to Holyrood on the Glasgow regional list.
Adams’ main rival is likely to be close political ally and former MP Anas Sarwar, who fired the starting gun on the race to top the Glasgow list yesterday.
Adams was Sarwar’s election agent when the 32-year-old won the Glasgow Central seat in 2010 and again last year when he was defeated by the SNP’s Alison Thewliss.
After Adams was elected to serve Govan in 2012 he became Labour’s chief whip under former Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson before successor Frank McAveety unceremoniously sacked him last month.
McAveety then made Adams chair of council-owned construction firm City Building at arguably the most challenging time in the arms-length organisation's history – it was revealed recently that around half its staff could transfer to housing provider Glasgow Housing Association to ward off the threat of the potential loss of around 1000 jobs.
Adams, who lives in Glasgow with his wife and young son, has now set his sights on Holyrood and with the SNP on course for a landslide victory next year his best chance of becoming a Labour MSP is to be voted number one, two or three on the regional list.
Adams, who is a former party organiser, said: “Scottish Labour is going through an exciting renewal and I can make a real contribution to that.
“Working in the disabled sector has given me first hand insight into the challenges faced by those at the sharp end of the failure of government both at a UK and Scottish level.
“I have also watched first hand as Scottish Labour's relationship with the third sector has frayed in recent years and I have the experience and knowhow to start to bring that back.
“This is a crucial step in Scottish Labour's rebuilding.”
Voters will go to the polls in May next year to elect 73 constituency MSPs with the first-past-the-post system and use their second vote to elect 56 regional list MSPs by an additional member system.
Recent polling gives the SNP a 30% lead over Labour with the Nationalists on 51% of the vote, while Labour trail with 21%.
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