3rd place Conservatives select new candidate for Aberdeen South and they.....

......promptly went campaigning in another seat where they won't win either.

Amanda Harvie has been parachuted in as the Aberdeen South candidate following the shock resignation of Mark Jones.

Given their placing in third, over 6,500+ votes behind the Liberal Democrats we always knew this was a long shot for the Conservatives, as is any seat in Scotland, but they have written off their chances here long ago.

It isn't on their list of 11 target seats and given it is the Liberal Democrats who are just 1,348 votes behind the Labour Party, they have realistically just shut up shop and moved elsewhere.

So, John Sleigh is the best bet to take this seat from Labour for the Liberal Democrats.

Aberdeen South Conservative candidate Mark Jones quits

Finally the Conservatives in Aberdeen South have realised that the general election is a two horse race between the Labour MP and Liberal Democrat John Sleigh.

Mark Jones the Conservative candidate for Aberdeen South has announced his shock resignation.

In today's Press and Journal they cover the story in full, however it has come out of the blue because his campaign manager didn't even know.

Frank Webster, who helped run Mr Jones’s campaign, was surprised when the Press and Journal told him of his decision to stand down.

 Mark Jones had stood in a variety of places in the past;

A former Tory councillor for Redbridge, he contested Paisley South for the party in the 2003 Scottish Parliament elections, and Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock in 2005, as well as the Highlands and Islands region and Shetland constituency in the 2007 elections for Holyrood.

Despite Conservative claims that Aberdeen South was a two horse race between Labour and themselves, it was reported in the Evening Express "Labour's Aberdeen South MP Anne Begg ... claimed she expected the main challenge to come from the Lib Dems."

And the figures speak for themselves, at the last general election;

Labour - 15,272
Liberal Democrats - 13,924
Conservative 7,134
SNP 4,120


So, with Mark Jones quitting, it really is between the Labour MP and John Sleigh - who is just 1,348 votes behind.