ALYN Smith has been selected as the SNP’s candidate to fight to regain the Stirling constituency for the party from the Conservatives at the next General Election.

The senior MEP yesterday announced he had won the nomination which would see him try to oust the Tories’ Stephen Kerr.

Smith is Scotland’s longest serving MEP, president of the European Free Alliance Group in the European Parliament and first vice president of the European Green Group. If elected he will stand down and be replaced in Brussels by the next placed SNP European candidate – former MP Margaret Ferrier.

READ MORE: Alyn Smith: I’m the best candidate to win Stirling from the Tories

“Stirling is the jewel in Scotland’s crown, and Stirling constituency is the heart of Scotland. I want to make it the heart of Scotland’s politics too, not east nor west, nor Highland or Central Belt. To win Scotland we must win Stirling. It will be a tough debate but I’m up to it,” said Smith.

“Deciding to put myself forward for Westminster and so leaving the European Parliament has been a tough decision. But I want to be where the fight is, and the fight we need to win is not in Brussels or Edinburgh.

“Scotland faces being dragged out of the EU against our will, by Westminster. We’ll turn that argument around at Westminster, by having fewer Tories. I know the EU inside out, I’ll go through them.”

Current Stirling MP Stephen Kerr

He added: “I’ve already hit the ground running. Having an office here as well as representing Stirling along with the rest of Scotland in the European Parliament for 15 years I have already good connections, which I look forward to building up and uniting the pro-EU majority behind my candidacy.”

Kerr is a committed Brexiteer, who campaigned for Leave in the 2016 EU referendum. His position could put him at odds with most of his constituents – 67% of whom backed Remain. Smith has been a key figure in the Remain side and was among the politicians behind a land mark legal case to the European Court of Justice which ruled the UK can unilaterally revoke Article 50.