The SNP'S chances of winning the key seat of Falkirk West were boosted yesterday when an aide to Dennis Canavan threw in his lot with the party.
Mr Canavan is standing down, having been the Labour MP for the area and then an independent MSP when he was barred from standing for his party.
Now the Nationalists have been boosted by the former MSP's closest aide backing the SNP's candidate, Michael Matheson.
Explaining his decision, Jim Lapsley said: "After much consideration I have decided to give my support to Michael Matheson.
"I know Mr Matheson has been an excellent list MSP working hard, serving the people of Falkirk and the people of Scotland diligently and conscientiously for the past eight years, and I hope you will vote for him."
Mr Matheson said: "This personal endorsement is a huge boost to the SNP team and to my candidacy, as we work to win the support of the people."
Dennis Goldie, the local council leader, is the Labour candidate hoping to win back the seat for the party which formerly held it for decades.
He played down the impact of a close supporter of Mr Canavan backing the SNP, saying: "Jim Lapsley was a good servant to the party but he defected some time ago and now he has defected again. I don't know if he will have much bearing on the result."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article