Officepolitics

I am writing in response to the letter from Paul Henke, the former-UKIP candidate (Stirling Council election, Forth and Endrick, 2012) who was kicked out the party, before a judge overturned the decision, and has now gallantly come to the aid of Tory regional MSP Dean Lockhart.

Mr Henke referenced a letter from Stirling MSP Bruce Crawford, responding to misleading comments made by Mr Lockhart - who has a local office for constituents to drop in to in Dunfermline.

Just to clarify for your readers, the rules of the Scottish Parliament state that an MSP can choose to have their constituency office anywhere in the area that they represent.

Mr Lockhart represents Mid Scotland and Fife - a very large area - yet despite contesting the 2016 election here in Stirling, it strikes as rather odd that he would choose to plant himself in Dunfermline.

It is also odd that Mr Henke takes such issue with it merely being mentioned that Mr Lockhart’s office is in Dunfermline - it’s clearly a contentious issue for him and his friends in the Tory Party.

Interestingly, Mr Henke doesn’t appear to take any issue at all with the purpose of Mr Crawford’s letter which was to set the record straight over a number of claims made by Tory MPs and MSPs in recent weeks - namely an attempted cover-up of the fact that the UK Government has cut Scotland’s day-to-day spending budget to the tune of more than £200m, as estimated by Fraser of Allander Institute economists. Eilidh Reid Borestone Stirling