SNP MSP John Mason 'to stand down' at next election

SNP backbencher John Mason is likely to stand down at the next Scottish Parliament elections, he has told Holyrood.

In a wide-ranging interview in the new edition of Holyrood, Mason, who has been an MSP since 2011, talks about his relationship with his party and its former leader Nicola Sturgeon, who is his constituent.

And he also defends his controversial statements on abortion.

In March, Labour’s Monica Lennon accused the Glasgow Shettleston MSP of “hijacking” the Baby Loss Memorial Book unveiled by Nicola Sturgeon to commemorate the tiny lives lost to stillbirth or miscarriage at 24 weeks or less when he submitted a parliamentary motion making points about abortion and the equality of all life as he saw it. 

Last year, SNP whips told Mason he had “brought the parliamentary group into disrepute” and shown a “lack of sensitivity” after he said he had heard from women who had “very bad experiences” at abortion clinics and “effectively found themselves on a conveyor belt”.

Mason told Holyrood: "We were making a commemoration for babies under 24 weeks whose parents wanted them and had had a miscarriage or stillbirth, when on the other hand, if I said in an abortion debate that a baby under 24 weeks was a baby, I will be shouted down and told that I shouldn’t even call it that.

“I’m not afraid of getting a reaction, I just feel on some of these subjects somebody has to speak out. Although I would rather it was a woman speaking.”

Mason also tells how his close working relationship with Sturgeon had "cooled" and admits that he is "very isolated" on abortion, saying some SNP figures would prefer pro-life voices to be "squeezed out" of the party.

He said: “The SNP was a big tent. That’s what I want it to be. I continue to push for that but amongst parliamentarians and people on the National Executive Committee, it would appear to be that’s now a red line.”

On his political future, Mason, who has spent 25 years in politics across council, the UK Parliament and the Scottish Parliament, indicated he will not stand again at the next Holyrood election in 2026.

He said: "I am 90-95 per cent sure.

"I’m 65 now; I’ll be 68 at the next election. I think that may be time to retire. I’m almost certain.”