An SNP legend helped deprive the SNP of an overall majority at Holyrood by donating £2,000 to Scottish Labour.
Jim Sillars, who used to be Alex Salmond ’s number two, gave the cash to deputy leader Jackie Baillie's local party so she could hold on to her seat.
Put to him that Baillie’s triumph stopped the SNP from winning the election outright, he told the Record: "If that was a consequence of it, so be it."
Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP were desperate to win the 65 seats needed for an outright win in May, but fell one seat short.
Baillie’s victory in Dumbarton against the SNP's Toni Giugliano - her sixth win in the constituency - was a pivotal moment.
According to the Electoral Commission, Sillars made two separate donations of £1,000 in the weeks before polling day.
Sillars said he had been concerned about a “lack of quality” at Holyrood, but insisted Baillie, who is one of the most pro-UK MSPs, was an obvious exception.
“She is a very impressive member of Parliament,” he said.
Sillars was impressed with Baillie’s performance on the Holyrood committee scrutinising the Government’s unlawful probe into sexual misconduct allegations into Salmond.
“She was a stand out on that committee,” he said. “I would prefer her in the parliament to a clone on the backbenches.”
He added: “I don’t think there is any doubt she is an asset to the parliament. My concern, in donating to Jackie Baillie, was to have a very able person in parliament.”
"I didn't want someone with considerable ability to disappear."
He said he was also disappointed Tory Adam Tomkins, Labour's Neil Findlay and the SNP's Alex Neil all stood down.
Sillars was a Labour MP before joining the SNP and securing a return to the Commons in 1988 when he won a by-election in Govan.
He has been a persistent critic of the SNP leadership under Sturgeon.
Asked if he was still a member of the SNP, he said: "I've never left."
"I have paid my membership dues."
Giugliano said: "Mr Sillars has more in common with Jackie Baillie than he does with the SNP these days - so I’m not surprised. It’s only a matter of time before he’s asked to be the frontman for the next Better Together campaign."
A Scottish Labour spokesperson said: "Scottish Labour would like to thank Jim Sillars for helping Dumbarton return a proven champion in Jackie Baillie MSP.
"Even the most ardent Scottish Nationalists know that the SNP cannot deliver MSPs that will stand up to the Scottish Government and for the communities that they serve."
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