Aberdeen Nine can stand for poll selection
Scottish Labour has voted to allow nine Aberdeen councillors suspended from the party to be considered as candidates for next year’s local authority elections.
The so-called Aberdeen Nine were suspended in 2017 after forming a coalition with the Conservatives, despite instructions from then-leader Kezia Dugdale not to do so.
Aberdeen City Council leader Jenny Laing and the city’s Lord Provost Barney Crockett are among those suspended.
Yesterday the party’s Scottish Executive Committee (SEC) voted to allow them to be considered for selection as Labour candidates in the council elections next May.
Scottish Labour said the SEC “has considered the position of the Aberdeen Labour group and have determined that members in Aberdeen should have the right to decide who their Scottish Labour candidates are for the council elections next year.”
Laing said: “We
appreciate how the SEC have considered and arrived at this decision.
“In administration in Aberdeen we have promoted and delivered the Scottish Labour Party policies that we stood for election on.
“It is right that the final decision now belongs to members in Aberdeen.”
Conservative MSP Douglas Lumsden, previously council co-convener with Laing, said: “For years now, Labour have treated their Aberdeen councillors horrendously, simply because they kept the SNP out of power.
“Even now, these councillors are still expected to be apologetic for working with a unionist party.”