Labour’s Joe Fagan has been selected to contest the East Kilbride constituency at next year’s Scottish Parliamentary elections.
Party members selected their candidate following a meeting in East Kilbride Civic Centre.
The seat has been held by SNP MSP Collette Stevenson since 2021.
Joe is the councillor for East Kilbride Central North and Leader of Labour in South Lanarkshire.
In 2019, he was named New Councillor of the Year by the Scottish Local Government Information Unit.
In 2022, he became council leader after forming an administration with Labour and Lib Dem councillors and an independent Provost.
Locally, Joe helped secure the 31A bus service, after the 31 bus was withdrawn, and has been the driving force behind East Kilbride’s £50 million Town Centre Master Plan.
Joe also led calls for investment in East Kilbride’s railway and forced the Scottish Government to overturn their cuts to the Hairmyres Park and Ride.
Under Joe’s leadership, South Lanarkshire Council extended School Clothing Grants to three and four year olds, delivered the best paid home care workforce in the country and put in place a £1 million Community Fightback Fund to help keep closure-threatened community facilities open under new operators.
Joe grew up in St Leonards and East Mains and attended St Bride’s High School.
Speaking after his selection, Joe Fagan, said: “My generation, adolescents when the Scottish Parliament was created, will be the first generation of Scots since records began to be worse off than their parents. Scottish politics is not working for them. I am standing to recapture the spirit of 1999 and put the Scottish Parliament back to work for the people of Scotland.
“I have been leading a public service through years of crisis and cuts. Councils of all sizes and all parties right across the country are making cuts they don’t want to because SNP MSPs keep depriving them of funding. I want to put a stop to it once and for all with a Barnett formula for local government.
“I have always pressed for East Kilbride’s fair share of investment – on the railway, the town centre and in our local services. I was delighted when we forced a U-turn from the Scottish Government and got funding for the new Hairmyres interchange reinstated. Now I am standing for Parliament myself and taking the campaign for fair funding for East Kilbride right to the centre of power.
“East Kilbride cannot afford another five years of division and decline at Holyrood. Not with one in six Scots on NHS waiting lists and a record number of children in temporary accommodation. Scottish politics has become too trivial.
“We need to send MSPs to the Parliament who are not afraid to speak their mind and stand up for the town.
“It’s not about scoring points, it’s about getting things done for the people who elected you.”
The next Scottish Parliament election is required to be held no later than Thursday, May 7 2026, to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament. It will be the seventh general election since the parliament was re-established in 1999.
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