Veteran Labour MP George Foulkes has announced that he is to retire from the House of Commons.

The Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley MP was first elected to parliament in 1979.

Since 1997 he served as an international development minister before becoming minister of state at the Scotland Office.

After being removed from government he went on to become one of Tony Blair's most loyal supporters and frequently defended the government over Iraq.

Tipped for a peerage, 62-year-old Foulkes was facing the possibility of a contest to retain his seat following the boundary shake-up in Scotland.

"I want to retire from parliament at a time when I am still young enough to do other things," he said.

A popular MP, Foulkes has a sociable reputation and enjoys foreign travel - sometimes dubbed "junket George".

In the early 1990s Foulkes was forced to resign from the Labour frontbench after he knocked a pensioner to the ground and scuffled with a police officer following a Scots Whisky reception at Westminster.

Whilst he is close to the current leadership, Foulkes is also a close associate of chancellor Gordon Brown.