A 19-year-old student who is challenging the First Minister for his seat in the Scottish Parliament apologised yesterday after photographs of him sprawled drunk were published on the internet.

Stuart Douglas, believed to be the youngest candidate in the Scottish elections, was pictured in various states of inebriation on his personal profile page of the MySpace and Bebo websites. He is shown lying on the floor, a glazed expression in his eyes, and in another photo looks comatose as friends stuff what seem to be cushions under his shirt. In yet another he is seen swigging from a bottle.

The teenager, who is the Liberal Democrat candidate for Motherwell and Wishaw, where he is hoping to overturn Jack McConnell’s 9,000 Labour majority in May, said that the pictures had been taken on different occasions over the past year. They are believed to have been posted on the internet by his friends.

After the photographs were published by a local newspaper, Mr Douglas apologised yesterday. He said: “I’m sorry if the pictures have lost people’s trust in me. But I would like them to judge me on the hard work I do in the community rather than on those pictures.”

Mr Douglas, who is a first-year law student at Glasgow University, and whose hobbies include stamp-collecting and battle reenactments, described the drunken pictures as a “lesson well-learnt for the future”.

He said: “The pictures were taken on various occasions including the recent law ball. It’s not as if I was doing anything illegal. I wasn’t out in the street drinking or anything, and I wasn’t causing any trouble.”

He told the Wishaw Press: “I like to think that I’d be a good role model. I try my hardest at everything I do, whether that be uni or politics.”

After seeing the photos from one booze-fuelled night out, Mr Douglas commented to a classmate, on the net: “My head was a little bit rough this morning. I didn’t realise how drunk I was till I saw the photos . . . How much wine did I drink last night?”

Among those to rush to Mr Douglas’s defence yesterday was his mother, Agnes. She said: “Stuart is a very serious boy who will feel that he has let himself down. It’s just a pity that the press have chosen only to publish these pictures and not to show the voluntary work he does.”

She added: “One of the pictures was taken after he returned from working with street-kids in Peru. He was out celebrating after coming back and he had crashed out through tiredness as well as having a drink.”

A spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats said: “This is a case of a young man having too much to drink — neither more nor less than that.”

Mr Douglas, who lives with his parents in New Stevenston, Lanarkshire, said last month when he announced his candidacy that he wanted young people to be portrayed positively. He said: “Too often our media and politicians talk about young people in a negative light. My campaign is going to be focused on creating opportunities for young people and looking forward to the bright future we can create.”

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