ONE of Labour's remaining working class MPs is to stand down at the general election In May.
Ex-miner David Hamilton, the 64-year-old MP for Midlothian, announced his decision to his local party, saying he did so with "a great deal of pride, tinged with considerable sadness".
Born in Dalkeith, he left school at 15 and worked 19 years as a miner, spending two months behind bars in the 1984-85 strike before being cleared.
A union leader during the strike, he was sacked by the coal board and he and his wife were blacklisted, and he spent two years unemployed.
After six years as a councillor, he was elected as an MP in 2001 and is now Scottish Labour whip. In his resignation letter, he wrote: "It is the right time for me to stand aside to allow the Labour Party in Midlothian to select a younger member, with fresh ideas and the hunger to meet the challenges of this changed landscape."
He said that he wanted to spend more time with his wife, children and grandchildren.
Scottish party leader Jim Murphy said Hamilton was "a gentle giant of the Labour movement".
Labour's 2010 majority in Midlothian was 10,369.
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