Adam Tomkins to stand down as an MSP at the 2021 Holyrood election

Adam Tomkins has announced that he will stand down as an MSP at next year’s Holyrood election.

The Scottish Conservative MSP plans to return to his role as the John Millar Professor of Public Law at the University of Glasgow full time.

He said the decision to stand down was for personal rather than political reasons.

Tomkins was elected on the Glasgow regional list in 2016 and has played a particularly strong role within the party on matters of the constitution due to his professional background in constitutional law.

He is currently the shadow cabinet secretary for strategy and before that held the role of shadow cabinet secretary for the constitution, communities, social security and equalities.

During his time as an MSP he has continued to lecture in law part-time at the University of Glasgow.

Tomkins said: “Serving as one of our party’s elected representatives for Glasgow has been an enormous privilege and leaving the Scottish Parliament in 2021 will be a wrench.

“I am not leaving the parliament for political reasons. I wish Jackson and his team every success.

“My reasons are personal, to do with the work I want to pursue in the coming years and to do with the kind of father I aspire to be to my four children.

“I know that I will be stepping down in circumstances where the party is so much stronger than it was five years ago.

“Crucially, however, we have a momentous election in only nine months’ time.

“Between now and then we must all work tirelessly to ensure that we return and elect the highest possible number of Conservative candidates, not only in Glasgow, but right across the country.”

Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw said: “I would like to thank Adam both for his personal support and advice and also for the immense contribution he has made to the Scottish Conservative parliamentary group and the party as a whole.

“Adam has been an invaluable source of energy and intellect, compassion and humour.

“While Adam has made important interventions on the union, his work on social deprivation, drug addiction and live music in Glasgow truly demonstrate the breadth of his interests and capability.

“We will all miss him and we wish him well.”