Dundee City Council leader John Alexander has signalled that he could end up quitting politics to spend more time with his family.
The award-winning local authority boss said he would “weigh everything up” at the end of his current term and “decide whether I even want to stand for election again”.
The 32-year-old has been in charge of the council since 2017, and has been tipped by SNP colleagues for “a future in politics at the highest level”.
But he has a young family and admitted “you miss out on a lot because of the nature of the job”.
Mr Alexander was speaking in an interview for our Generation Next project – an in-depth focus on 35 people in politics aged 35 or under and considered among the brightest prospects in their parties, north of the central belt.
The Strathmartine councillor said he had rejected suggestions that he should put his name forward for the Scottish Parliament elections next year and, while he would not rule out standing for a national parliament in the future, he also could not even guarantee that he would remain in politics beyond 2022.
‘You carry that weight on your shoulders’
“The only reason I got into politics is because I wanted to make Dundee a better place. That is genuinely the only reason,” he said.
“In the lead-up to next year’s Scottish Parliamentary election I have been asked and lobbied by colleagues and members to see if I wanted to put myself forward for the list or a constituency seat.
I am going to see out my term, and the next council election isn’t for a couple of years. I’ll weigh everything up at that point and decide whether I even want to stand for election again.”
“But to be honest I have kind of pushed back against that, because as far as I am concerned I was elected to finish this term and to do what I set out to do, which was to make Dundee a better place.”
Mr Alexander added: “So I am going to see out my term, and the next council election isn’t for a couple of years. I’ll weigh everything up at that point and decide whether I even want to stand for election again.
“I’m not the type of person that goes into every election thinking I will continue regardless.
“I’ve got a young family. I’ve got a five-year-old and a three-year-old, and you miss out on a lot because of the nature of the job, and how time-consuming it is, and how important it is. You carry that weight on your shoulders.”
The SNP councillor, who was first elected when he was 23 and became council leader when he was 28, said he had given “no thought about what is going to happen in two or three years’ time”, which he believed was appropriate because at the moment “we don’t know what is going to happen next month”.
In the interview, Mr Alexander also discussed his journey into politics and why he joined the SNP.
The Generation Next project also features interviews with other up-and-coming Dundee-based political figures, including Labour’s Graeme McKenzie, Liberal Democrat Michael Crichton and Leodhas Massie from the Scottish Greens.
