Boosting challenge in the area

Four candidates will be standing in each of the two Monklands constituencies at next month’s general election.

The SNP incumbents will be challenged by Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in both Airdrie & Shotts and Coatbridge, Chryston & Bellshill. Appearing on the ballot papers in Airdrie will be Conservative candidate Jennifer Donnellan and Liberal Democrat representative Ewan McRobert, joining Neil Gray of the SNP and Helen McFarlane of Labour.

Joining Phil Boswell of the SNP and Hugh Gaffney of Labour in contesting the Coatbridge seat are David Bennie of the Liberal Democrats and Conservative Robyn Halbert – who was also the party’s candidate there in the 2015 general election.

Nominations for the Westminster election closed on Thursday afternoon after a truncated official registration period of just three days, due to the snap nature of the June 8 polling date.

The Green party is fielding three candidates across Scotland at this election. A spokesperson for its North Lanarkshire branch said:“At a meeting of the [local] committee it was decided that we would not put forward a candidate for Airdrie & Shotts or Coatbridge, Chryston & Bellshill in the General Election. We will not be endorsing any other candidate.”

Meanwhile, independent Airdrie councillor Alan Beveridge is planning to arrange a hustings meeting at One Wellwynd on June 1, and will be asking candidates bidding to represent the town to participate.

He noted there had been no similar events for any elections in recent years and said:“As Airdrie’s only independent councillor, I see it as my duty to give the people of the town an opportunity to not only put faces to the names on the leaflets which will be popping through their letterboxes, but to engage with them too.

“I will contact all candidates directly to invite them to attend, and am giving public notice of the hustings now to give them as much notice as possible. I intend to give all candidates a platform and hope they’ll give the people of Airdrie the respect they deserve .”