Stef standing down…

And Shirley-Anne is standing up. I know both Stef and Shirley-Anne very well having campaigned alongside them for a number of years and I’m delighted for both. Stefan Tymkewycz has worked for years to become a councillor in the area he lives and he’s keen to make it his focus.

He’ll resign officially from Parliament on Friday 31st of August and Shirley-Anne Somerville is expected to be sworn in on Wednesday 5th of September. A release has gone out today and Stef is quoted as saying that "It has been a great pleasure to serve in our national Parliament, even for a short period".

"This is an exciting time for our country as the SNP Government pushes forward with its positive policies and vision for Scotland. I have thought long and hard about this over the summer but now realise that it is the council ward aspect of my work which gives me the greatest satisfaction”.

“Although elected to both roles, I have chosen the one where my passion lies and that is working for the good people of Edinburgh, and particularly those in my ward. It is what I do best and I know that, in Shirley-Anne Somerville, I have an outstanding successor waiting in the wings. She is an extremely talented individual and I will be passing over my duties to a young woman with a great deal of ability”.

"I would thank the voters once again for giving me both opportunities to contribute to political work and to the SNP activists whose efforts helped us all get elected this May."

Shirley-Anne will be a fantastic addition to the SNP group at Holyrood, and I suspect there will be more than one or two Edinburgh SNP activists in the gallery to see her being sworn in at the start of the new term in September.