LABOUR'S hopes of retaining control of Scotland's biggest council have suffered a blow as one of the most familiar names in local government has announced she will quit.

Liz Cameron, a former Glasgow Lord Provost and the city's current head of education, has told her local party branch she will not be standing again in May's council election.

Mrs Cameron has long been considered one of the most capable members of the Labour administration in Glasgow and carries the party's biggest personal vote in the city.

It comes as it emerges former MSP Anne McTaggart has been chosen as a Labour candidate and seek a return to the City Chambers.

Mrs McTaggart, who was a councillor for two years and served one term in Holyrood as a Glasgow list MSP, had been unsuccessful in attempts to seek selection in at least one other ward before being nominated to contest Drumchapel and Anniesland.

Mrs Cameron will leave politics a quarter of a century after first being elected to Glasgow District Council in 1992.

The Herald understands one factor in her departure, which has surprised both colleagues and opponents, is the health of her husband Duncan, a prominent figure in the sport of shinty.

Labour sources have downplayed claims the former college lecturer and was unhappy at the prospect of not being top of the ballot paper in May.

Former MSP Bill Butler, who failed in his bid for selection in Pollok a fortnight ago, will put himself forward as a candidate in Mrs Cameron's Garscadden and Scotstounhill ward, where Labour recently lost a by-election in a 20 per cent swing to the SNP.

One senior Labour source said: "Liz carries the biggest personal vote in the city. This is a real blow to the party."

Another said: "Liz has family responsibilities and it seems the thought of another five years slog just didn't appeal to her. It's a surprise but not at the same time."

A spokesman for council leader Frank McAveety said: "The Council Chamber bereft of her verbal short-swording assaults will be much diminished. What a servant she has been to the people of Glasgow. Incomparable really."

A former head of arts and culture at the council, she is credited with helping raise the city’s profile nationally and internationally while Lord Provost.

During her term of office, the revamped Kelvingrove reopened and Glasgow’s bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games was launched. Latterly she served as the first chair of Culture and Sport Glasgow, now Glasgow Life, and vice chair of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau.

She joins fellow prominent Labour councillors George Redmond, Paul Rooney, Jonathan Findlay and James Adams in announcing their exit from Glasgow politics.

Across Scotland, the Labour leaders of Stirling, Edinburgh and Renfrewshire councils have also declared their plans to quit before May.