A HELENSBURGH councillor and the depute provost of West Dunbartonshire have thrown their hats into the ring to become the SNP’s candidate in Helensburgh and Lomond at next year’s Scottish Parliament election.

Helensburgh councillor Lorna Douglas and West Dunbartonshire’s education convener, Cllr Karen Conaghan, are the latest party figures to seek the endorsement of SNP members in the Dumbarton constituency ahead of next May’s poll.

Councillor Douglas, who works as a teacher, was elected to represent the Helensburgh Central ward at the last local authority elections in 2017.

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In a short video posted on Twitter and filmed on the banks of Loch Lomond, she said it is “time to do things a bit differently”.

 

The two councillors join Math Campbell-Sturgess, convener of the SNP’s Lomond North branch, former Helensburgh resident Toni Giugliano, and Scott Lafferty on the shortlist of prospective SNP candidates hoping to take on Labour MSP Jackie Baillie, who has held the Dumbarton seat since the Scottish Parliament was established in 1999.

The constituency’s boundaries stretch from Bowling in the east to Inverarnan and the Rest and Be Thankful in the north and west.

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