Labour announces General Election candidate

Labour Party members have selected have selected Gerry McGarvey as their candidate for the Orkney and Shetland constituency in the forthcoming General Election.

Mr McGarvey said he was delighted to be chosen by party members in the Northern Isles. Politics could be “life changing” and he believed it essential that voters were given the opportunity to vote for what Scottish Labour stood for

He said: “Scottish Labour is showing that we can formulate winning policies starting with the ‘cost of living crisis’ narrative building to a wider economic argument as to why Labour should be the voters’ first choice.

“The coalition have talked a good talk, about ‘saving the economy’, but have singularly failed to evidence any benefit to individuals, families or communities during their term of office. The challenge for me is to convince the electorate that we ‘will’ bring about the change that people, especially our vulnerable, are so desperate to see.

“Scottish Labour will walk the walk as well as our talk of addressing the cost of living, and ensure that while we are addressing a global economic crisis, our people don’t have to live off food banks and the like while paying for the austerity policies deployed by the coalition.

“I am being honest in saying that our poor, our weak and vulnerable will not be footing the bill courtesy of ATOS (the firm which assesses whether benefit claimants in Britain are fit to work), for the coalition’s means of addressing the problem.”