Hope for Tory defector
JONATHAN GEDDES
The Liberal Democrats have announced their candidate for Rutherglen and Hamilton West at the next general election.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie MSP joined local members at a selection meeting in Cambuslang last week, where it was announced that Councillor Mark McGeever – who defected from the Tories earlier this year – will stand.
Liberal Democrat Council group leader Robert Brown, who represents Rutherglen Central & South, said: “I think local people, like our members, will be very impressed with Mark McGeever as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the area.
“Rutherglen & Hamilton West is one of the areas where the Liberal Democrats will be taking on the SNP, as the only party campaigning for our two important Unions – for Scotland to stay in the United Kingdom and for the UK to stay in Europe.
“Liberal Democrats are finding huge support for our clear campaign for our two Unions.”
Councillor McGeever, who represents the Hamilton West and Earnock ward, said: “The Liberal Democrats are surging in the polls and it was incredible to speak to so many local members and supporters.
“People up and down the country see that we genuinely share their progressive values and, like them, we know that serious problems need practical solutions.
“We offer a clear alternative to the destructive, divisive nationalisms of both the SNP and Boris Johnson’s right-wing government.
“We completely reject the Tories’ attempt to build new barriers between Britain and the continent, and the SNP’s never-ending efforts to break-up Britain.
“Neither of those narrow, nationalist approaches will do any good for Rutherglen, Cambuslang, Hamilton or Blantyre.”
Councillor McGeever quit the Conservatives in July, saying he could not be part of a party that uses racist, homophobic and misogynistic language, and blaming Prime Minister Boris Johnson for encouraging this.