A STUNNING admission that Labour threw the last election in a key seat raises an obvious question: are they doing the same this time around?
The evidence suggests they are. The National revealed earlier this week that Labour’s Aberdeen South candidate Tauqeer Malik admitted to a voter that his party “did not bother at all” in order to help the Tory campaign against the SNP.
Simply put, they wanted a Tory MP over an SNP one. In the event, they were unsuccessful and the SNP’s Stephen Flynn (below) took the seat from Tory Ross Thomson.
But are they doing the same this time around to give the Tories – the party with the best chance of beating the SNP in Aberdeen – a shot at dethroning the wunderkind Flynn? It certainly looks like it.
With the best will in the world, Malik is not the sort of candidate you put up if you’re in the business of winning. Political parties do not expect to win in every seat. For instance, Tory candidates in parts of the central belt often barely hold onto their deposits.
Sometimes these are candidates with potential, but too green for office just yet. Other times, these paper candidates are effectively cannon fodder and the thought of them actually winning would send shivers down the spines of party high command.
Malik is of the latter camp. As we have seen, he is not a polished campaigner. His explanation for Labour’s paltry 3000-odd votes in Aberdeen South last time around pours scorn on his predecessor Shona Simpson.
She reacted with genuine incredulity when I put Malik’s claims to her. When I called to ask if she really had thrown the election, Simpson replied: “I certainly did not throw the election, absolutely not. That’s a ridiculous statement, no absolutely no.”
Malik does not enjoy the clean rap sheet you might associate with a serious candidate.
During the leadership of Kezia Dugdale (above), he was one of the Aberdeen Nine, who were booted out for forming a coalition on the city council with the Tories.
Earlier this year, he was temporarily relieved of his duties as a councillor by a standards watchdog after he was found to have made a baseless accusation of racial discrimination against an SNP councillor.
He is not however, the ideal paper candidate. Usually, political parties want someone who would give them considerably less grief than Labour are currently getting for Malik’s antics.
Will he be elected? Almost certainly not. But at this rate, Labour will just be happy to keep the £500 deposit for his candidacy.
