17:42

Sarah Boyack, the former Scottish government minister, is to return to Holyrood to take up the seat left vacant after Kezia Dugdale resigned on Monday.

Currently head of public affairs at the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and a Labour moderate, Boyack had previously been a transport minister who introduced free bus travel for the over 60s. She lost her seat at the 2016 Holyrood elections, after 17 years as an MSP.

Under the Scottish parliament’s additional member system, she inherits Dugdale’s seat as the next available Labour candidate on the Lothian region list; her return helps Labour maintain its high gender balance at Holyrood.

Boyack said she had enjoyed her two year stint at the SFHA but, in a reference to her long-standing involvement in environment campaigning in the labour movement, said:

However, there is unfinished business for me. In the last three years the case for concerted action on climate change and the need to redouble our efforts to tackle poverty has accelerated. In Edinburgh, the affordable, accessible housing people need has become harder and harder to secure. And then there’s the uncertainty and division caused by Brexit.

The next potential candidate for Dugdale’s vacant seat was Lesley Hinds, a veteran Labour councillor in Edinburgh who retired at the last local government election