A FORMER Labour politician who quit politics in a major expenses scandal has been confirmed as a party candidate for May's local elections.

Gary Gray, one of Scotland's most prominent spiritualists, has been selected to contest a ward in the north of Glasgow over a decade after he resigned from the city council over his cash claims.

A spiritualist since the age of nine and who has claimed to have communicated with John F Kennedy from beyond the grave, he stood down in late 2005 after an investigation by The Herald's sister The Evening Times revealed he had claimed more than pounds £8000 in subsistence and mileage.

Mr Gray, who will seek election in the Canal Ward in May after being selected by party colleagues on Wednesday, was also under investigation by public sector watchdogs when he quit.

He has insisted he was a suitable candidate and claimed when he stood he was suffering from ill health as well as being targeted because of his spiritualist beliefs.

Mr Gray's selection comes as the SNP put forward a charity finance chief whose business website claimed he was a direct descendent of George III for election in Ayrshire.

Stephen Brown, treasurer at Citizens Advice Scotland, had purchased the title Lord Glencoe and calling himself Lord Yerton his site stated his lineage to the Hanoverian monarch had "recently been verified by DNA analysis".

He later said this had been a joke and told the Sunday Herald he would remove the claims. But his selection on the back of revelations has sparked both mockery on social media and while concerns have been aired within North Ayrshire political circles after he suggested on social media that a pro-Union tweeter should emigrate.

The Herald:

One source said: "It's better that whatever happens with Stephen does so now rather than after June. This stuff doesn't reflect well on any of us. "Questions are being asked of how the SNP got itself into the position where he's been selected as a candidate."

Mr Gray, 43, has been involved in a number of high-profile psychic investigations with leading UFO enthusiast Ron Halliday.

In 2015 the pair claimed to have uncovered evidence of fairies living within the Royal Botanical Garden in Edinburgh and reported seeing globes of coloured light and being “not of this world”.

And in 2011 he was given special permission by Edinburgh’s National Museum to study its collection of tiny coffins discovered in 1836 in a cove near the summit of the capital’s Arthur’s Seat.

At the time he said: “The first image that flashed into my head was an upside down pentangle, the symbol of Satan. Also, the name James is very prominent. He’s a boy of ten years old and he’s trying to tell me something."

Last night he told The Herald: "I feel I have something to offer. When I stood down I had problems with my health and was targeted over my spiritualist beliefs. We need to have local candidates and local people need someone they can relate to. I'm going into this election to win.

"I am a fit and proper person to hold public office and these were legitimate expenses and I resigned also because of the pressures on my family."

Mr Brown said he did not want to comment on the criticisms but said he was was a suitable candidate on the basis of his professional and personal background, adding the social media comments came on the back of right-wing attacks.