Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
McAnulty is snubbed in SNP candidate list
Councillor reinstated after row won’t be on ballot
Coatbridge councillor Julie McAnulty has not been reselected by local SNP members to defend her seat at the forthcoming local government election.
The redrawn four- member Coatbridge North ward will instead be contested for the party by Kirsten Larson and Allan Stubbs, who topped a ballot of local party members from a pool of approved candidates for the area.
Councillor McAnulty was reinstated to the party last August following a six-month administrative suspension following an allegation of racism, which she denies. She is pursuing a defamation action at the Court of Session; with her supporters saying she is the victim of a smear campaign to damage her reputation.
The Advertiser was yesterday unable to reach Councillor McAnulty for comment on her deselection in the ward, which she has represented for five years.
It means three of the current seven SNP councillors for Airdrie and Coatbridge will not be appearing on local ballot papers in May, after Coatbridge West member Imtiaz Majid and Airdrie South representative Agnes Coyle failed to progress through the earlier initial selection interview process to become approved candidates.
Following the Coatbridge North decision, party sources indicated Councillor McAnulty could possibly still be selected to stand in a different ward. The SNP were still to finalise their candidates for up to eight of North Lanarkshire’s 21 wards by yesterday afternoon – ahead of today’s 4pm nomination deadline.
The party is to field a total of 14 candidates in the seven revised Monklands wards, redrawn ahead of May’s election after a national review which has created an extra ward and added seven new councillors to take the local authority’s total to 77.
Coatbridge West councillor Paul Welsh will be defending his seat in the three-member ward and will be joined on the ballot by fellow SNP candidate Caroline Stephen; while Greg Lennon and Gerry Parker are seeking election in the new three- member ward of Gartcosh, Glenboig & Moodiesburn.
The selected candidates in an expanded four-member Coatbridge South area are Tracy Carragher and Fergus MacGregor, brother of Coatbridge MSP Fulton.
In Airdrie, opposition group leader David Stocks is once again standing in Airdrie Central, alongside Nancy Pettigrew. Incumbent councillors Sophia and Michael Coyle are each up for re-election in Airdrie North and South respectively – with the second SNP representative in each seat still being finalised and confirmed as the Advertiser went to press.
The candidate selection procedure has been run centrally by SNP party headquarters this year instead of being organised at North Lanarkshire level.
Opposition group leader Councillor Stocks told the Advertiser: “I’m happy and confident in the candidates we have, and I’m confident that we can form a good administration and that we’re ready to take over North Lanarkshire Council.
“We’ll be putting two candidates up in each ward across North Lanarkshire and have been working hard already, chapping doors and gathering support, and there’s been a great response.”
He added: “There could be a bit of an unknown quantity in this year’s election in the number of independent candidates who might stand.”
Councillor Stocks declined to comment on Councillor McAnulty’s deselection or this year’s candidate nomination process, describing it as “an internal party process”.
Meawhile, former councillor Fulton MacGregor MSP said of the North Lanarkshire candidates in his constituency: “The SNP team for Coatbridge is the biggest and strongest ever fielded for local elections.
“Never before have the people of Coatbridge had such an opportunity to elect an SNP council, and I’m delighted that we have such a capable team looking to represent our town.”
I’m happy and confident in the candidates we have Cllr David Stocks