EAST Lothian’s first Scottish Greens councillor is set to fight for a seat at Westminster in the upcoming General Election.

Shona McIntosh has been named as the Scottish Greens; candidate for the new Lothian East seat, which incorporates the majority of East Lothian except the western part of Musselburgh.

Ms McIntosh, who became the first Greens councillor in East Lothian after standing in Musselburgh in the 2022 local authority elections, previously worked in higher education both as a teacher and in outreach roles.

She said: “With recent confirmation that we have hit 1.5 degrees of warming, the urgency of the climate crisis demands a radical response from our politicians.

“However, too many of them are caught in the trap of ‘business as usual’, whether that’s the Tories dishing out more licences for oil and gas extraction or Labour u-turning on their previous plans for a Green New Deal.

“As a councillor, I’ve seen first-hand the impact of the cost-of-living crisis in East Lothian and we should be clear that this is driven by the price of oil and gas – it should really be termed a ‘cost of fossil fuel’ crisis.

"A Green vote sends the message that we must take immediate action.” 

Musselburgh candidate

Meanwhile, Musselburgh resident Amanda Grimm, has been announced as the Green candidate for the new Edinburgh East & Musselburgh seat.

Ms Grimm, who lives at Stoneyhill and is parliamentary campaigns officer for Scottish Green MSP Ariane Burgess, has joined in with local initiatives such as Musselburgh Street Clean and the Esk Forum, and attended meetings of the Musselburgh Area Partnership and the town's community council since moving to the Honest Toun in 2022.

Ms Grimm is a member of Sustaining Musselburgh and an elected member of the East Lothian Greens Committee.

She previously worked in the culture sector in Edinburgh, has served on the board of Friends of the Earth Scotland and is an "experienced campaigner" on climate change.

The new Edinburgh East and Musselburgh seat includes most of Musselburgh west of Pinkie playing fields. The eastern-most part of the town is in the Lothian East constituency.

Ms Grimm said: "I’m standing in the General Election because I want to give people in Musselburgh the chance to vote for greener, fairer policies that make life better for the majority, instead of concentrating wealth and power at the very top.

"In Musselburgh, people want more investment in community hubs like the Hollies and the library; they want to keep much-loved buildings like The Brunton and the town hall in public ownership; they want improved social housing and help with heating; and they want public bodies to be properly resourced to tackle litter, fly-tipping and river pollution.

"But decades of austerity economics from the UK Government and Westminster have brought our public sector to its knees.

"The Scottish Greens stand for different choices. Our priorities are clear: invest in public services and tackling the climate emergency while supporting people through the transition.

"Let’s push the UK Government to make different choices – whichever party wins the upcoming election."

A General Election is expected to take place later this year, although a date is yet to be set.

Confirmed candidates for the Lothian East constituency so far also include Douglas Alexander (Labour), Robert Davies (Reform UK) and Iain Whyte (SNP).

Meanwhile, confirmed candidates so far for the Edinburgh East and Musselburgh constituency so far also include incumbent Edinburgh East MP Tommy Sheppard (SNP), as well as Chris Murray (Labour) and Derek Winton (Reform UK).