Ex-Labour councillor Stephen Dornan joins SNP

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-31162284

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A councillor who quit the Labour Party three years ago has joined the SNP.

Stephen Dornan was one of six Glasgow councillors who left Scottish Labour ahead of a council budget vote in 2012.

He was later re-elected as an independent councillor for the Govan ward under the Glasgow First banner.

Mr Dornan applied to join the SNP group last year and his membership has now been formally approved. He said he believed the SNP was now the "party of social justice".

Speaking to the Evening Times newspaper, Mr Dornan said he believed Labour had "got more blue" while the SNP had "become more socialist, but not in a cynical way".

Mr Dornan had initially campaigned for a "No" vote during the independence referendum before later announcing he was going to vote "Yes".

Susan Aitken, leader of the SNP group on Glasgow City Council, said: "We are very pleased to have Stephen Dornan as part of the SNP group in Glasgow - he's a first class councillor and good man. I am sure he'll be a great asset to our group."

A spokesman for the council's Labour group claimed the move had "more to do with Councillor Dornan's electoral calculations than a Damascene conversion from socialist to nationalist."

Mr Dornan's move will bring the SNP to 28 councillors in Glasgow. The local authority is currently controlled by Labour, which returned 44 members at the 2012 local elections.