ANDREW Dunlop, a former adviser to David Cameron, is joining The Herald as a columnist.

He says: "I was brought up with the Glasgow Herald as it then was. My father, Robert Dunlop, was part of Glasgow’s business community for nearly 40 years and the paper was a staple of our breakfast table.

"My grandfather (also Robert Dunlop) was a city councillor and my great grandfather, Sir Thomas Dunlop, was Lord Provost of Glasgow and instrumental in establishing the Scottish Poppy Appeal and also involved with the Erskine Hospital.

"Like my great grandfather I was educated at Glasgow Academy and well remember commuting on the “Blue Train” from Helensburgh, hopping off to catch the Underground –with its unique sounds and smells – at Partick for Kelvinbridge."

Dunlop has worked in and around Whitehall for decades, starting out in 1986 as an advisor to Margaret Thatcher’s Defence Secretary George Younger and later advised David Cameron before the 2014 referendum on independence. In 2015, he was given a peerage, becoming Lord Dunlop of Helensburgh in Dumbarton.

He adds: "As an adviser to David Cameron and as a UK Government Minister for Scotland my associations with Glasgow continued and I was instrumental in getting agreement for the Glasgow City Region deal and involved in securing funding for the Glasgow School of Art following the fire and for the renovation of the Burrell Collection."

Lord Dunlop is the latest columnist to join The Herald, alongside Lesley Riddoch, foreign editor David Pratt, concert promoter Donald MacLeod, former Labour MP Brian Wilson, Scottish Farmer’s political editor Claire Taylor and Hugh MacDonald. He will appear every second Tuesday.