Labour candidate in new gaffe

saltire shield'It does seem bizarre that any candidate in any election should be less than open about basic biographical details.'
An SNP spokesman commenting on the Labour candidate's claims that she was born in Aberdeen when she was actually born in Staffordshire.		Lion Rampant

Accident of birth forces more Labour apologies

Robbie Dinwoodie, Scottish Political Correspondent in the Herald

THE European by-election in North East Scotland enters its final week today, with Labour back on the defensive over another gaffe by its candidate, who was forced to apologise for the second time in her campaign for remarks she has made.

Mrs Kathleen Walker Shaw's election literature spoke of her coming "from a North-east family", but she was caught out telling a Sunday newspaper reporter that she had actually been born in Aberdeen, even down to specifying the street she was first brought up in before her family headed south.

However, the News of the World then searched out her birth certificate, which showed she was born at Wordsley in Staffordshire.

"I should not have said what I did and I apologise for it," she said yesterday.

"There has been a great deal of debate about who is a Scot during this campaign. I am a Scot, born of Scottish parents, made in Scotland. Perhaps it was my pride in being a Scot that led me to give an inaccurate account of my birthplace on one hurried occasion."

Ironically, it was the debate about who is a Scot, and who would qualify for citizenship in the event of independence, that led to Mrs Walker Shaw's first gaffe of the campaign, when she accused the SNP of having policies which "smacked of a kind of racism". She was then forced to insist that she was not accusing any SNP members of racism.

One irony is that the SNP's chief executive, Mr Michael Russell, was quick to point out in defence of his party's citizenship proposals that he was born in England, although he considered himself a Scot.

Mrs Walker Shaw could have made her case by pointing to her English birth.

She said yesterday: "I hope we can now move on to the final days of this campaign and focus on the far bigger issues at stake in this election."

The SNP made little of the gaffe yesterday and agreed.

A spokesman said: "We are fighting this campaign on the issues that matter to the people. We are not really interested in the personal background of the Labour candidate.

"However, it does seem bizarre that any candidate in any election should be less than open about basic biographical details." - Nov 23.

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