Labour candidate now claims she was conceived in Aberdeen

'The President has kept all of the promises he intended to keep.' Clinton aide George Stephanopolous speaking on Larry King Live.

Candidate conceives new line in Aberdeen nativity row

By Robbie Dinwoodie, Scottish Politital Editor in the Herald

Mrs Walker Shaw offered viewers to Grampian Television more details than they might have wished to know about her origins by insisting: "I was conceived in Aberdeen."

But there was a more serious side to the ongoing controversy yesterday.

Forced to apologise at the weekend for what she called her "one-off" misleading claim that she was born in Aberdeen, it emerged yesterday that she had made the same claim in print in her internal party campaign material to win nomination as a candidate.

Caught on Sunday by a newspaper which unearthed her birth certificate showing her to have been born not in Aberdeen but in Staffordshire, she apologised, saying: "Perhaps it was my pride in being a Scot that led me to give an inaccurate account of my birthplace on that one hurried occasion."

However, her own internal Labour campaign leaflet seeking selection as a European candidate in July's one-member-one-vote postal ballot of party members in the North-east seat, claimed: "Originally from Aberdeen, I have a great deal of experience and contacts in Europe working as European Officer for the GMB trade union in Brussels."

Mrs Walker Shaw's campaign team were not available for comment last night after a day of street activity in Dundee, but the issue is likely to dog today's efforts in Aberdeen when Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar makes another visit in support of her.

An SNP spokesman said last night: "It is of little interest to us, but it is incomprehensible why the New Labour candidate has been less than open about her background. It is now clear that a similar claim was made when Ms Walker Shaw was seeking the Labour nomination." - Nov 24.