Fife election: Father and daughter celebrate unique double victory
Fife will have a father and daughter as councillors – believed to be the first in the local authority’s history.
The unique double was clinched when James Leslie pulled off a huge win for the Tories in Kirkcaldy North to join daughter Kathleen, who was returned for a second term in Burntisland, Kinghorn and Western Kirkcaldy.
Mr Leslie clinched one of the three seats in the ward, which was opened up following the retiral of long-serving Labour stalwart Neil Crooks, who was the convener of Kirkcaldy’s area committee.
Mr Leslie, who was a senior lecturer in banking and finance at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, missed
his moment of glory as the results were announced.
He explained: “I wasn’t on the rostrum – I’d gone for a walk in the shopping centre, because I thought we were about half an hour away from a declaration.”his daughter added: “We campaigned pretty hard in the ward and it paid off.” The result came as, over the other side of the country, former asylum seeker Roza Salih said being elected a councillor in Scotland’s largest city showed how “the people of Glasgow have always welcomed me”. More than two decades after arriving in Scotland as a refugee, she was voted into office, as an SNP councillor for the Greater Pollok ward.
She was congratulated by SNP leader and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who said shewassheddinga“veryhappy tear” at Ms Salih’s election
Ms Salih arrived in Scotland after her family fled Iraq, and as a teenager she became part of the Glasgow Girls campaign protesting against the dawn raids to remove some failed asylum seekers.