John Mason has said he will not resign his seat and trigger a by-election after his expulsion from the SNP.
The MSP for Glasgow Shettleston is considering an appeal after he was expelled by the party for controversial comments about Gaza.
Mr Mason has made clear he will not stand down, as he doesn't want to damage his now former party.
Speaking exclusively to The Herald he said: "When you stand for election, you basically promise to represent your constituents for five years. That’s what I did.
“I think it wouldn’t be right for me to stand down.
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"I don’t think it will help the SNP because there’s a reasonable chance for Labour to win the seat.
“So I don’t want to damage the SNP. And nothing has changed since I was elected in 2021. My views are exactly the same on Israel and everything else when I was elected.”
Mr Mason initially had the whip withdrawn after saying Israel "would have killed 10 times as many" people in Gaza if it wished to commit a genocide.
There is no provision in the UN genocide convention relating to number of deaths.
The Srebrenica massacre was the first legally-recognised genocide since the end of World War II, in which more than 8,000 Bosniak muslims were murdered. More than 40,000 have been killed in the occupied Gaza Strip since the outbreak of war.
Mr Mason's comments were described as "abhorrent" by an SNP spokesperson, and he was expelled after a member’s conduct committee found he had showed no “contrition or awareness” and that his "actions could impact negatively on perceptions of the party by the public and by SNP members".
Should the MSP have been expelled? Have your say in our poll below.
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