Ayr by-election 2000

'Donald Dewar, a sad and vindictive old man, decreed that under no circumstances would I be allowed to contest the Labour nomination and so it had to be. Donald the Dalek intones the words of the Master: 'I obey, I obey, I obey'.' Alex Smith, Labour MEP for South of Scotland, 1989-1999, January 23 rd 2000.

Dewar is sad old man, says ex-MEP

By Robbie Dinwoodie in the Herald

He referred to the First Minister as a "Dalek" and a "sad old man" in his onslaught, which he insisted was about the leadership overruling local members, rather than any personal ambition. He said: "As of now my only connection with the Labour Party will be to oppose the leadership at every opportunity and to assist in exposing their hypocrisy."

He stopped short of announcing a new allegiance to another party, but when questioned implied that he may well endorse the Scottish Socialist Party at the by-election, which would be a further blow to a Labour campaign already under a cloud from the resignation of Ian Welsh as MSP. He said the decision to bar him from the short-list marked "a decisive end to a chapter but not to the book," implying he hoped to remain in politics. He said: "The broad church of Labour is no more. The self-perpetuating elite are now in charge and believe that to vote for them is all that the workers are good for.

"All that matters now is The Project. They have hijacked the Labour name and reputation but abandoned the principles. To the elite there is no left or right, there is only compliance. They did not fear me personally but fear what I represent and more importantly they fear the possibility of that being popular."

Claiming that growing support on the ground drove the leadership to block him, he said: "It is now abundantly clear that these champions of democracy intend democracy only to be what they deem it to be, and the champions of inclusion decide who is to be included - the rhetoric of the confidence trickster."

Last week senior Ministers and their representatives sought to keep out of the Ayr selection process, although aides claimed Mr Smith had performed poorly in specific sections and interviews.

Mr Smith turned on this yesterday, saying: "What has been clear up to now, I believe, is the extent to which they will go, driven by their fear and vindictiveness. Donald Dewar, a sad and vindictive old man, decreed that under no circumstances would I be allowed to contest the Labour nomination and so it had to be. Donald the Dalek intones the words of the Master: 'I obey, I obey, I obey'."

He rejected the suggestion from Conservatives that he should stand as an independent, saying: "They need all the help they can get, but they will get none from me. My memories of what the Tories did to working people in general and to Scotland in particular go too far back to allow that to happen." For 10 years an MEP, Mr Smith found himself placed hopelessly far down the list system at the last poll and his European constituency party instructed him to withdraw in protest. Labour sources last week insisted that a rigorous vetting process had produced the short-list of John Baillie, Claudia Beamish, and Rita Miller.

Mr Smith said it was a painful day to be severing his Labour party links, adding: "This is not a fit of pique, not a personality thing but about something much more fundamental." He claimed: "The rights of the members of their Labour Party and those of the electorate in Ayr have been trodden under foot and the democratic process has been subverted. But just as the Labour Party leadership cannot decree my political demise, neither can they decree the demise of my class."

24 th January 2000