 | 'Labour should not be worried about losing. It should be looking forward to winning. People are always telling me Tony Blair and new Labour are not popular in Scotland but actually Tony Blair is the most popular politician in Scotland and new Labour is popular in Scotland.' Labour's Marie Antoinette, Philip Gould (an advisor to Tony Blair), 25 th October 1998. |  |
Mr Frank Doran, MP for Aberdeen Central, was speaking as the Scottish Secretary met with Scottish members of the Parliamentary Labour Party at Westminster.
Donald Dewar moved to squash Labour party concerns over the disastrous Euro by-election result.
Flanked by Alex Rowley, the general secretary of the Labour party and Scottish Secretary's special advisors Murray Elder and David Whitton, Mr Dewar admitted it was not a good result but he stopped short of criticising candidate Kathleen Walker Shaw.
After advice from the leadership, the MPs agreed to hold an inquiry behind closed doors away from the media.
Mr Rowley, who some MPs believe is being unfairly blamed for the dire result, is understood to have given "a combative" reply to the criticisms.
Earlier, Tony Blair was forced to defend the selection system for the Scottish parliamentary candidates when he met Falkirk West MP Dennis Canavan along with other back benchers in Westminster yesterday.
Although the Prime Minister is understood to have misgivings about the selection procedure, he told the MPs that the unsuccessful applicants who were excluded from the final list should just accept it.
After being challenged by Mr Canavan, who had been surprised to be invited to the meeting, Mr Blair is understood to have told him that he was annoyed that, during his visit to Scotland, he had been pestered by the media with questions about Mr Canavan.
For Mr Canavan's part, he joined other MPs to express their dissatisfaction over "control freakery". - Dec 2
Return to home page