SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn to run for Holyrood at next election

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has confirmed that he will run for a seat at Holyrood at the Scottish Parliament elections next year.

Although there’s still time for another candidate to challenge Flynn, the Aberdeen South MP looks set to become the SNP candidate for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine at the next election.

Flynn told the Press and Journal on Tuesday that he is “delighted” to have been nominated by SNP members for the seat.

He told the local paper that joining the SNP at Holyrood would be an “immense privilege” as he vowed the party would focus on the NHS, growing the economy and “helping working families”.

The SNP party has yet to give Flynn the final green light on the internal contest, but he told the newspaper that he was formally nominated as the SNP candidate for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine at the nomination meeting ten days ago.

Any other SNP candidates looking to challenge Flynn will need to secure 50 nominations by Monday’s deadline.

After previously igniting controversy in the party over his plans to hold a seat at both Westminster and Holyrood, he now intends to step down as an MP to take up a seat at Holyrood.

It has not yet been confirmed whether he will resign ahead of the election, but he may be forced to do so under new Holyrood rules banning dual mandates.

Flynn retracted his plans to hold seats at Westminster and Holyrood following strong opposition from his SNP colleagues last year.

He announced in November that he was planning to seek the MSP candidacy for the Aberdeen South and North Kincardine seat – which overlaps with part of his Westminster constituency but is currently held by SNP Audrey Nicoll.

In early February, Nicoll announced her plans to retire from Holyrood at the end of her first and only term but later denied that she had been pressured to do so.

Flynn originally planned to remain the MP for Aberdeen South until the next general election if elected but later admitted that he got it “wrong”.

“My aim to save the public purse from unnecessary strain by potentially overlapping the role of an MP and an MSP for a short period until the next General Election was genuine in its intent – but doing it for the right reasons doesn’t change the fact that I got it wrong,” he said previously.

In recent years, the party has taken a strong stance against dual Holyrood and Westminster mandates, and the Scottish Government has backed moves to bar MSPs from also sitting as MPs or members of the House of Lords ahead of the 2026 Holyrood election.

The changes have been proposed as part of the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill and could come into force as early as the autumn.