Falkirk West By-election 2000
 | 'Chancellors and Prime Ministers simply have to get on. Recent history is littered with governments broken by disputes between Numbers 10 and 11. The Conservative Chancellor, Nigel Lawson's, resignation in 1989 - followed by Sir Geoffrey Howe's - brought the Thatcher era to a close. John Major never recovered from the departing Tory Chancellor Norman Lamont's Commons statement in which he described Major as 'in office but not in power'. When Chancellors go down, they are inclined to take governments with them. The Labour ministers briefing against Gordon Brown would do well to remember that.'
Iain MacWhirter in the Herald, 20 th September 2000. |  |
By-election battle warms up
Chancellor Gordon Brown joined the Falkirk West by-election trail on Monday as the major political parties began stepping up their campaigns.
The Labour politician managed to side-step questions about rebel MP Dennis Canavan - whose resignation from the Westminster seat has brought about the contest.
Instead, he sought to focus on pensions and jobs and visited a pensioner couple in their home.
Nominations for candidates close at 1600GMT on Thursday, and so far no names have been officially handed in.
However, all the major political parties have announced who will fight the election for them on 21 December.
The Conservatives have picked Craig Stevenson; Labour have chosen Eric Joyce; the Scottish National Party are fielding David Kerr; the Liberal Democrat candidate will be Hugh O'Donnell and Iain Hunter will fight the seat for the Scottish Socialist Party.
During Mr Brown's visit to the constituency on Monday morning, he told reporters that "stability" was needed.
He said: "Mr Canavan has resigned his seat, and the question is who is going to represent this seat at Westminster.
"We need stability in the representation, and a Labour candidate stands for a better deal for pensioners, tackling the problems of unemployment, and stability
in the economy."
'Looking to the future'
Neither of those things, said the chancellor, could be guaranteed by the tories or the nationalists.
"We have to look to the future now, and I believe a Labour representative is the right person to speak up for the needs of this constituency, particularly when we are still in a battle for jobs," he added.
The chancellor met pensioners Jean McKay and her husband Jim, 70, at their sixth floor flat in the town's Greenbank Court.
Mrs McKay said after the visit: "He was very nice and chatty. He was really very friendly.
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