Decision day for Kerr in bid for Westminster seat

BARELY 36 hours elapsed between a BBC Scotland reporter deciding to put himself forward for selection, as a prospective Westminster parliamentary candidate, and presenting his last report for the station.

And tonight he’ll find out whether it was a wise decision.

David Kerr is up against the leader of the SNP group at Glasgow City Council, Cllr James Dornan, as the SNP select its candidate to contest the Glasgow North East constituency, being vacated by former Westminster Speaker, Michael Martin.

Kerr has twice fought for election to Westminster, pushing Labour hard in the Falkirk West by-election nine years ago and also the General Election, for the same seat, the following year.

He has been at the BBC for 12 years, latterly as a television reporter.

His CV includes editing Newsnight Scotland and assistant editorship of Newsnight. His last task before stepping down from BBC Scotland was to present its breakfast bulletin on Friday.