In his latest column for the Chronicle, Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock MP Allan Dorans congratulates Scotland's new First Minister - and reflects on his work on the House of Commons Privileges Committee grilling former PM Boris Johnson.

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First of all, I would like to congratulate Humza Yousaf MSP on becoming the new SNP leader and First Minister of Scotland.

Regardless of whether you support the SNP or Mr Yousaf personally, it is an historic moment to see Scotland have the first Muslim leader of a democratic Western European nation.

As the first ethnic minority First Minister in Scotland, he succeeds Scotland’s first ever female First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon MSP, another proud moment for Scotland.

I look forward to seeing his work as First Minister.

As many will remember in April 2022, the House of Commons voted unanimously to refer the previous Prime Minister, Boris Johnson MP to the Committee of Privileges to investigate whether he had intentionally or recklessly, misled Parliament over what has become known as "Partygate”.

As one of the seven members of the Committee, this has taken up a significant amount of my time in Parliament.

After an extremely complex investigation lasting over 11 months, the committee finally took oral evidence from Mr Johnson on March 22. Hopefully, this extremely complex investigation will be concluded very soon.

You can watch my contribution to the proceedings on my Facebook page – Allan Dorans MP.

Also in Parliament, I was very pleased to give my support to Metastatic Breast Cancer UK, who are a charity, promoting awareness of secondary breast cancer which is the leading cause of death of women aged between 35 and 64 in England.

One in seven women will develop breast cancer and around 30 per cent of all breast cancer diagnoses will metastasize and become incurable at some point.

Ladies, please check your breasts regularly and consult your GP if you have any concerns, however slight, about your health.

Back at the start of February, I met with Stuart Bates and Ron Ireland from South Ayrshire Paths Initiative with my colleague Siobhian Brown MSP to hear about their plans for an art project inside the old Alloway Railway Tunnel.

This is a fantastic project aiming to create one of Scotland’s largest murals through the Tunnel. This ambitious and transformative project will see what is currently an old, dilapidated tunnel, turned into a unique space with a hand painted mural by one of the UK’s top muralists and visionaries, Chris Rutterford.  

They are now trying to raise £5,000 of funds for the project by April 21 at 12pm. If you can, please do donate to their crowdfunder - Transforming the Alloway Tunnel.

As I write this, the Easter holidays are soon approaching, and I know how important it is for parents to find free fun activities for children during this time. From April 3- 16, various East Ayrshire swimming pools will be offering free swimming sessions for children 11 and under.

You can access the free sessions by getting a SHOUT discount card, available on the East Ayrshire Council website, for children from birth-11 years, living or attending primary school in East Ayrshire.