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Friday 19 March 2010

East Lothian Labour Party in complete disarray as Anne Moffat MP deselected

Anne Moffat MP has been de-selected this evening losing the vital reselection/confidence vote 130 votes to 59.

Given this is the constituency where Labour's Scottish Leader, Iain Gray is the MSP, this is very bad news for the Labour Party here in Scotland.

Labour in East Lothian are in tatters and with the Liberal Democrats being in second place is this the seat where a shock result could happen at the general election?

Labour members in East Lothian attended a special meeting in Haddington this evening where they decided by more than two to one that Anne Moffat should not be the party's candidate in the general election.
However, Labour's ruling national executive committee will have the final say on her candidacy.

Labour have been polling much better in Scotland than other parts of the UK, but given the scandal with Steven Purcell, once tipped as the next leader of Labour in Scotland and now Anne Moffat MP cannot get reselected in East Lothian, are we seeing Labour's wheels coming off in the same way we have seen the SNP falter in recent months?

The forthcoming general election in Scotland is a great opportunity for the Liberal Democrats, in fact we are second to Labour in Scotland in number of MPs and with Cameron's Conservatives just having the one MP and not really expected to gain many more, it is up to the Liberal Democrats to fill that void.

2 comments:

Jock Coats said...

Hmm, yeah, was talking about this to a member of said NEC this evening. I don't think there's much doubt really. The bigger issue for them is that all this happening seven weeks out from an election they are likely going to have to impose a candidate.

They've been getting increasingly pissed off with MPs themselves dedciding to spring their departure on them since the turn of the year - NEC gets the blame as ever for dictating a new candidate on what had often been a loyal constituency party who's been kept in the dark and surprised by their MP's sudden decision.

subrosa said...

Bit excessive there Andy saying the SNP have had similar problems to labour in recent months. Is it wishful thinking perhaps?

Labour's problems are deep at the core of the party with the Purcell affair and now this.

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