LABOUR grandee Douglas Alexander – who served in both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s Cabinets – has put his name forward to run in the next Westminster election, reports say.
Alexander, a former Scottish secretary, is said to have applied to stand for Labour in either East or Midlothian in the next General Election.
He previously held the Paisley and Renfrewshire South seat (formerly Paisley South) from 1997 to 2015 before a humiliating defeat at the hands of the SNP’s Mhairi Black.
Black, who was just 20 when she defeated the top Labour figure, now has a majority of some 10,000 votes, with Labour activists in Lothian said to be claiming Alexander is running scared of facing her again.
The Edinburgh Evening News quoted one Labour source as questioning why Alexander wasn’t “going after one of the Paisley seats where he has connections”, with the suggestion he is only interested in a “winnable seat”, not representing local people.
The former Cabinet minister has submitted an application to run in either East Lothian or Midlothian, according to the journalist Michael Crick through his Twitter account @Tomorrow'sMPs.
I understand former Cabinet minister Douglas Alexander HAS submitted his application to be Labour candidate for the dual East Lothian/Midlothian selection.
— @Tomorrow'sMPs (@tomorrowsmps) December 20, 2022
If Alexander were to run in East Lothian, he will be up against Alba’s Kenny Macaskill, who took the seat from the SNP when he defected to Alex Salmond’s new party in early 2021. The former Scottish justice secretary has a majority of some 4000 votes.
The SNP are also said to be planning to stand a candidate in the East Lothian seat, which could give Labour a stronger chance due to a division in the pro-independence vote. It is thought to be one of their top targets in Scotland in the next Westminster vote.
Midlothian is currently held by the SNP’s Owen Thompson, but has changed hands between his party and Labour frequently over the elections since 2010.
Scottish Labour reportedly wants to confirm its candidate selection before its spring conference. Its constituency twinning system, for areas such as East and Midlothian, says there has to be a gender balance across the shortlists.
