TOMMY Sheridan has lost a legal battle over a decision not to give him a job as a social worker.
Sheridan instructed lawyers to go to the Court of Session in a bid to judicially review the actions of Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership bosses, who told him he could not be employed due to his previous conviction for perjury.
The organisation wrote to the ex-MSP to tell him that to employ him as a criminal justice social worker would create an “unacceptable level of risk” for the local authority.
In his job application, he disclosed how he had been given a three-year prison sentence in 2011 for perjury.
A jury at the High Court in Glasgow concluded that he had lied on oath during his successful defamation action against the News of the World newspaper.
The court heard that social work bosses then sent him a letter in August 2024 telling him the conviction presented an “unacceptable level of risk” to Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership.
More communications to Sheridan told him that future applications for jobs with the organisation would not be “progressed”.
Earlier this year, Sheridan’s lawyer Mike Dailly told Lord Young that the council had acted unlawfully in its decision. However, in a written judgement issued by Lord Young on Thursday, the court found that social work bosses acted lawfully.
Lord Young wrote: wrote: “I agree with the submission for the respondent that it makes no difference that, in this case, the petitioner’s complaint relates to a refusal by the respondent to consider entering into a contract of employment.
"The context in which the respondent sent these letters to the petitioner was whether the petitioner was viewed as a suitable candidate for employment as a social worker.
“This was an employment situation where parties are free to decide whether to enter into a contract or not.
“He enjoys no private law right to be considered for employment by the respondent, so he is seeking to fashion a right to be considered for social work jobs through the application of broad public law concepts.
“If the petitioner’s argument were accepted, then it would follow that every applicant for a public sector job in Scotland could potentially challenge the job application process using the judicial review procedure.
“I find that the petition is incompetent for the reasons advanced by the respondent, and it falls to be dismissed.”
Sheridan used to lead the Scottish Socialist Party, which won a number of seats at Holyrood in 1999 and 2003.
He served as an MSP for Glasgow between 1999 and 2007.
His political career was derailed when stories appeared in the News of the World alleging he had taken cocaine and cheated on his wife Gail at swingers’ parties.
He took the News of the World to court in 2006 and was paid £200,000, but he was later convicted of lying in court during this civil action and was sentenced to three years in jail, of which he served one year.
Recently, Sheridan was elected to the governing body of the Alba Party and has put his name forward in the hope of being selected as an Alba candidate for the Scottish Parliament.
