Candidate choice

The 42-year-old businessman lives in Peebles and also stood for the party in the 2017 general election. Commenting on his adoption, chairman of the selection committee, Graham Garvie, said: “In recent months there has been a huge upsurge of interest in the Liberal Democrats and a substantial increase in membership across the country, as evidenced by the high turnout of members at the adoption meeting.” John, who is married with two children, added: “The biggest threats to jobs and prosperity for the people of Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale are a Nationalist-engineered separation of Scotland from the UK, and a Tory-engineered hard exit of the UK from the EU. Only the Liberal Democrats are working to remove these risks to our economy."