McLeish out of by-election race

Mr McLeish stood down as first minister in 2001

Henry McLeish has ruled himself out of standing in the Glenrothes by-election.

There had been speculation that Mr McLeish, a former Scottish first minister and Fife MP, would seek to defend Labour's 10,600 majority.

It was left vacant after the death of John MacDougall, who was fighting the cancer-related disease mesothelioma.

Mr McLeish quit as first minister in 2001 after serving just over a year, amid a controversy over expenses for his Westminster constituency office.

Since then, he has been unveiled as the head of the new Scottish Government's prisons commission.

Mr McLeish also raised eyebrows by giving his backing to Alex Salmond's National Conversation on independence.

And in a book he co-wrote last year, Mr McLeish claimed Westminster Labour was "out of touch" with the political mood in Scotland.