Inverness husband and wife team in Holyrood election double act

A HUSBAND and wife team have been chosen for an unusual double act in the Scottish Parliamentary elections.

Highland MSP David Stewart and his wife Linda have been selected by local Scottish Labour Party members to be the party’s candidates for two North constituencies in next year’s elections.

Mr Stewart will contest Inverness and Nairn which is currently held by the SNP minister Fergus Ewing.

Mrs Stewart will stand in neighbouring and Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch where SNP MSP Dave Thompson is standing down and the party has chosen his former parliamentary assistant Katie Forbes, from Dingwall, as its candidate.

Labour Party members from both constituencies met in Inverness last Saturday and overwhelmingly backed the husband and wife team to stand again, both having been candidates for the seats at the Holyrood elections in 2011.

Mr Stewart was previously the MP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber between 1997 and 2005 before making the move to Holyrood, becoming a regional list MSP for the Highlands and Islands in 2007.

At the 2011 election for the Inverness and Nairn constituency he moved Labour from third to second.

Mrs Stewart, director of European and International Development with the University of the Highlands and Islands, is a member of the Labour Party’s Scottish Executive Committee and previously stood at the Scottish Parliament election, 2007 for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber and again in 2011 for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch.

Speaking after selections David said: “With our new leaders Kezia Dugdale and Jeremy Corbyn in place, we are seeing a real surge in membership and I hope to be able to convert the increasing local support into votes in the constituency next May.

“We know locally the Lib Dems let people down badly and many voters in the Highlands are now turning to Labour as a real alternative to Tory austerity and as a protest against the SNP centralisation agenda.

Mrs Stewart said: “We have to be realistic about the challenge ahead of us, but the shine is starting to come off the SNP, not only in the Highlands, but right across Scotland. Just as Kezia Dugdale has done, I ask voters in Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch to take a fresh look at Scottish Labour. Those who do will see a real alternative, a Scottish Labour party committed to social justice and equality and one which stands in opposition to the centralisation and cuts agenda being put forward by the SNP in Edinburgh.”

“Issues that we should be pushing to the forefront of the political agenda like education and healthcare, rather than continuing to argue about constitutional change.”

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