Mundell: My pride at son’s stunning win
SCOTTISH Secretary David Mundell’s son Oliver recorded one of the most memorable election shocks after beating senior Nationalist Joan McAlpine. Miss McAlpine, a divisive figure in Holyrood and a former top aide to Alex Salmond, saw support for the SNP rise by 7.7 percentage points – but it was not enough to prevent Mr Mundell increasing the Tory vote to secure a 1,230 majority. Labour’s Elaine Murray, who previously held the Dumfriesshire seat, was pushed into third place. The result was labelled the ‘were you up for Joan?’ moment by political observers, in reference to the 1997 General Election when Michael Portillo lost his seat. David Mundell, MP for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, said last night: ‘It was a very emotional night for me. It’s harder being the candidate’s dad than being the candidate, but I couldn’t be more pleased by the outcome. ‘I am so proud of Oliver, he has worked so hard to win, knocking on thousands of doors and has achieved something I didn’t by becoming a constituency MSP. ‘And of course, we are the first father and son to serve in the parliament, which is a nice footnote in history. I know he will do a great job in the Scottish parliament for people here in Dumfriesshire and look forward to working with him.’ David, 53, was a south of Scotland MSP before he switched to Westminster. Oliver, 26, said last night: ‘I’m absolutely delighted and really grateful to people here in Dumfriesshire for putting their trust in me. ‘I know that thousands of people who voted for me weren’t traditional Conservative voters and switched to me in this election because they recognised there was something more important at stake. ‘They recognised the SNP weren’t prepared to let these issues around a second independence referendum drop. ‘In this part of the world, those issues are lived out in daily lives. We’re right on the Border [with England], our local housing market is stagnating and people are not keen to invest in the area while the uncertainty continues. ‘We have an opportunity to close down that issue now. There’s a very clear message to Nicola Sturgeon that that’s not a direction people want to go in.’ Oliver has recalled delivering leaflets for his father at the age of just eight, and he joined the party in 2012 after being inspired by leader Ruth Davidson. He has a first-class legal degree and has since worked for oil and gas firm Shell and as a researcher for Geoffrey Cox, Conservative MP for Torridge and West Devon.
In 2011, Labour’s Mrs Murray won the seat with the party’s largest majority of more than 3,000. In Thursday’s contest, Oliver Mundell secured 37.3 per cent of the vote, with Miss McAlpine on 33.9 per cent. Miss McAlpine will still return to Holyrood, however, as a regional list MSP.
Former SNP councillor Yen Hongmei Jin was hopeful of becoming the Holyrood candidate in Dumfriesshire, but found herself up against Miss McAlpine. Miss Jin later quit the party after claiming she was subjected to ‘bullying’.
Miss McAlpine, Mr Salmond’s former parliamentary liaison, secured the support of the former first minister in the internal selection battle.
In 2014, Holyrood bosses were accused of a ‘whitewash’ after Miss McAlpine was cleared of any wrongdoing following a row over her expenses claims. The parliament’s decision-making body concluded there was ‘no evidence’ that she breached the rules.
However, parliament chiefs failed to mention in their inquiry that a personal photographer hired by Miss McAlpine using her taxpayerfunded expenses in March 2012 – and paid in advance – was her ex-lover’s wife.
Six months later, after photographer Jane McLachlan discovered her husband’s affair and threatened to make it public, Miss McAlpine returned the £1,750 fee.
The Holyrood probe did find that she left the public purse at ‘risk of default’ by paying the fee in advance, but concluded she had met that risk by repaying the money.