Dumbarton's constituency MSP has won a top prize in the annual awards hosted by a Scottish political journal.

Jackie Baillie, who has represented the area since the Scottish Parliament was established in 1999, was named 'MSP of the Year' at the Holyrood magazine awards on Wednesday.

The Scottish Labour representative was up against the SNP’s Neil Gray and Liam McArthur of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

The programme for the ceremony, held at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, described how Ms Baillie’s nomination followed five terms of “hard work and good politics”.

It continued: “She has been a formidable critic of the SNP in government and is on her feet most weeks at FMQs raising the big questions.

“She is the powerhouse behind the Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, and worked tirelessly to ensure Labour’s success in the local government elections which moved the party back up into pole position behind the SNP and looking more like a credible government-in-waiting.”

Ms Baillie - who won a sixth term as the area's MSP in the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections, increasing her majority from 109 votes to 1,483 - said afterwards: “I am absolutely delighted and rather overwhelmed. It is an incredible honour.

“The focus of my work every single day is to try and make life better for my constituents, and to hold the government to account for the decisions that they make.

“This is never something that I do alone, and I am grateful to my great staff team and to have the support of my constituents in six successive elections.”