Fife MP announces he will stand down at next next General Election

Peter Grant will call time on more than 30 years of public service when the current Westminster parliament is eventually dissolved and the nation goes to the polls. Mr Grant has been MP for Glenrothes since 2015.

In a statement, he said it was the important to know when it was the right time to step down.

“For me that time has not come yet, but it is likely to come in the next parliament, and it is fairer on everyone if I acknowledge that now,” he said, adding: “Depending on the timing of the next election, the parliament is likely to run until I am 68 or possibly 69 years old. I owe it to everyone to ask myself whether I will be able to cope with the physical and mental demands of the job when I reach that age.

“I don’t think, in all honesty, I can give a firm yes to that question, and that means, in all conscience, I can’t ask volunteers to campaign for me and ask voters to vote for me when I have doubts in my own mind about my ability to serve a further full term at the level of intensity I know will be needed.”

Mr Grant won the seat at the second attempt after being defeated by Labour’s Lindsay Roy in a 2008 by-election following the death of John MacDougall.

Before that he led the SNP-Lib Dem coalition administration at Fife Council from 2007-12. He was first elected a a councillor in 1992.

Mr Grant successfully held his Westminster seat at in the 2017 and 2019 elections.

He said that for the remainder of his time as an MP, he would “continue to serve the interests of my constituents to the best of my ability, as well as pressing the case for Scottish independence which most people now regard as both essential and inevitable,”Mr Grant added: “It goes without saying my commitment to the SNP and to independence remains as strong as ever, and I look forward to playing my part in the SNP and in the wider independence movement to deliver the vision of an independent Scotland that has been my main driving course over 31 years in elected public service.”