The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Labour asking its activists to travel
Labour is recommending activists in Aberdeen make two-hour, 90-mile trips to campaign in Fife instead of helping win votes locally.
The party has already faced accusations it had “given up” in the north-east more than a month before the election.
A bombshell poll this week put Labour on 39% in Scotland – 10 points ahead of the SNP – and suggested they could even unseat Stephen Flynn in Aberdeen South.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party held both seats in the north-east city until 2015.
Yet instead of fighting to regain them, activists in the city are being encouraged to knock doors in distant marginal constituencies.
Labour’s website allows volunteers to put in their postcode, so they can find out where they are best placed to help the party during the election campaign.
Someone who lives on Union Grove, in SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn’s patch, will be told to travel to Dunfermline and Dollar instead.
Local Labour leader Tauqeer Malik is taking on Mr Flynn in Aberdeen South and has talked up his chances of winning.
He boasted about the shock YouGov poll which showed him winning the constituency and has claimed he is the only prounion candidate who can beat the SNP.
The Labour Party told us the volunteering tool is not widely used by activists, who are more often directed to a page which allows them to find local campaign events.
A spokesperson said the recommendations for long-distance travel were specifically aimed at targeting the most marginal constituencies in the country.
They added that Labour members are regularly given details about campaigning from their local branches.
But Aberdeen North SNP MP Kirsty Blackman claimed Labour asking volunteers to go all the way to Fife was a “massive humiliation” for local candidates.
She said: “It seems Labour has packed it in altogether – SNP volunteers and candidates will be out every day in their numbers to ensure we keep the Tories out.
“The north-east has always been an afterthought to Labour, but the SNP will always put Scotland first and ensure the north-east comes first.
“While Labour might have given up on the northeast, every single SNP MP elected here will go down to Westminster to put our corner of the world front and centre.”
Aberdeen South Tory candidate John Wheeler said: “Labour have clearly prioritised Fife seats over those in the north-east.
“The SNP forgot about the north-east a long time ago – years before their disastrous coalition with the Greens.”
It’s a similar picture elsewhere across the region for where activists are being urged to go.
Labour supporters in Fraserburgh or Elgin are also told to make the long journey to Dunfermline instead of leafleting locally.
Elsewhere, the party is recommending activists who live in the Highlands, Orkney or Shetland travel to the Western Isles.
A Labour supporter who lives in Lerwick, for example, is asked to make the 255-mile journey to the Outer Hebrides.
Former journalist Torcuil Crichton is running for the party there and has a strong chance of unseating incumbent nationalist MP Angus Neil, now an independent.
The Labour Party said it remains determined to fight for every seat in Scotland. A spokesperson said: “Scottish Labour is fighting in every single part of the country to deliver the change Scotland needs.
“The people of Aberdeen have been badly let down by this chaotic Tory government and by SNP MPs who have put the party interest ahead of the national interest.
“No SNP or Tory seat is safe – change is possible and Scottish Labour is fighting to deliver it.”
Labour faced a backlash in the north-east earlier this year after pledging to extend and increase the windfall tax on oil and gas.
But party leader Sir Keir – widely expected to defeat Rishi Sunak – has tried to woo the energy sector by creating a new publicly owned firm. The Labour chief said GB Energy will be based in Scotland and will create new jobs in the transition from fossil fuels.
But he declined three times at the party’s Scottish election campaign launch to say whether the HQ will be in Aberdeen.