LOCAL MSP Christine Grahame insisted this week that she is “deadly serious” about becoming the first SNP candidate to stand in an English seat at a General Election.

Ms Grahame, elected to Holyrood for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale in 2011, told a fringe meeting at the recent SNP conference that she had offered to contest the Berwick-upon-Tweed constituency at next May’s polls.

She said she wanted to highlight the iniquity of her party’s new leader Nicola Sturgeon being excluded by the main broadcasters from any of the UK-wide televised debates in the run up to the Westminster vote.

“I have offered to stand as a candidate in Berwick so we [the SNP] can get equal coverage by going for a UK seat outwith Scotland,” said Ms Grahame.

Speaking to the Border Telegraph on Monday, Ms Grahame said she believed her request would require the approval of her party’s National Executive Committee.

“I have written to the National Secretary of the SNP and await a reply, but I am deadly serious and I have had loads of supportive messages,” she told us.

The English-born former lawyer went on: “Given the impact that devolution has had not just on Scotland but the north of England and with the prospects of that area going for an assembly in the near future, I would like the opportunity to advise the Berwick electorate of the benefits of taking control from London.

“The issues for Berwick, which will benefit from harmonious cross border co-operation when Scotland has more powers, are very close to those in the Scottish Borders.” The Berwick seat is currently held by Sir Alan Beith, first elected in 1971 and the longest serving Liberal Democrat MP. In 2010, Sir Alan, who will stand down in May, had a majority of 2,690 over his Conservative rival.

But Ms Grahame’s cross-border aspirations were rubbished this week by her Holyrood predecessor, Jeremy Purvis – a Berwick native who was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Purvis of Tweed last year.

“It seems a remarkable move from someone who worked so hard to become a Borders MSP,” said Baron Purvis, who was Lib Dem MSP for the former Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale seat from 2003 to 2011.

“If anyone is looking for evidence that the SNP is an anti-English party, then sending Christine Grahame to Berwick should do the trick.”