George Galloway announces Holyrood bid with attack on Salmond and Gray

• George Galloway announcing that he would stand in Glasgow in the Forthcoming Holyrood elections in May at the Bombay Blue Indian Restaurant Glasgow

Announcing he will stand for election at Holyrood in May, Mr Galloway said there were too many "non-entities" serving as MSPs and that the time had come for a "heavyweight parliamentarian".

Dressed in a sombre all-black suit at odds with his colourful political reputation, he set out his stall at the back of the Bombay Blues, an Indian restaurant in Glasgow city centre he had helped open 20 years ago.

"I am here to announce that I am a candidate in the Scottish Parliament elections in May. I'm going to stand in Glasgow," he said. "I'm not a stranger, of course, to the city. I was for 18 years a Labour MP here.

"Of course, I've been out of Glasgow politics since 2005, which is not just yesterday but it's not an age.

"The affection and attachment and commitment that I have to Glasgow is, I hope, of such long standing that it will not be doubted."

He said he had not decided yet whether he would run under the Respect banner, as he had in London's Bethnal Green constituency, or as an independent.

Facing a small group of journalists, the veteran politician looked relaxed despite confessing to having not smoked one of his trademark cigars in "24 days and counting" on account of a bout of ill-health last month.

He gave a typically forthright performance during which he outlined what he believed were the shortcomings of Labour and the SNP, the poor performance of the parliament and what he believed his role in it would be.

Mr Galloway said that while he wanted Scotland to remain part of the union, he "strongly" believed in home rule.

"It's my contention, you may think it's rude, but I think it's accurate, that today's Scottish Parliament has too few real parliamentarians in it, heavyweight parliamentarians who would be recognised outside their own street, whose voice would be recognised if heard on the radio," he said.

"It's my view that too many, in Holyrood today, would regard the term 'non-entity' as an accolade and I think that's bad for the Scottish Parliament. It's bad for politics in Scotland."

He said he believed First Minister Alex Salmond was head and shoulders above other MSPs, but that this was part of the problem in that Mr Salmond remained untested and "his feet are not put to the fire".

The 56-year-old also put an end to the prospect of an alliance with Tommy Sheridan's Solidarity Party after it emerged last week that Gail Sheridan would be standing for the party.

The pair had been in discussions about standing together under the same banner but that idea floundered over Mr Sheridan's tarnished reputation.

"Most importantly I believed, and I believe, that if I were to run a joint campaign with Solidarity, especially with Gail Sheridan as my number two, that my election campaign would become a referendum on Tommy Sheridan," said Mr Galloway.

He said he would publish his manifesto at a later date, although he added that his focus would be on more powers for the Scottish Parliament.

He suggested that if he was elected he would end his career at Holyrood, but did not rule out another attempt at a political comeback: "If I don't get elected, then obviously I reserve the right to have a go in other elections," he said. "But I did spend 23 years in the House of Commons, that's possibly quite long enough."