Candidates and Constituency Assessments

'Some might sniff that (Dr John) Reid's political progress owes more to the party machine and an ability to choose friends carefully than to raw talent. But everything he has touched so far has been a success - even to the point of turning the meaningless job of Scottish secretary into what Jeremy Paxman described as the minister for embarrassments.' Murray Ritchie in the Herald, 25 th January 2001.

Motherwell & Wishaw

Candidates

	Labour	Frank Roy MP
	Scottish National Party	Ian MacQuarrie
	Conservative & Unionist	Peter Finnie
	Liberal Democrat	Dr Conor Snowden
	Scottish Socialist Party	Gregor McEwan
	Free Scotland Party	Dallas Carter
	Operation Christian Vote	Coral Thompson

Candidates

The Labour candidate is Frank Roy, who is currently MP for the old constituency of that name. He was born in Motherwell in 1958 and educated at St Joseph's High School, aMotherwell College and Glasgow caledonian University. He worked at Ravenscraig from 1977 until it closed in 1991. In 1997, he was elected as MP for Motherwell & Wishaw following the retiral of Dr Jeremy Bray. In 1998 he became Parliamentary Private Secretary Helen Liddell while Deputy Secretary of State for Scotland, and then to John Reid when he was Secretary of State. He again became PPS to Helen Liddel when she succeeded John Reid, but was forced to resign after advising the Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, that would be dangerous for him to visit Scotland. He also won £3,400 by reputedly using insider knowledge to place a bet on the outcome of the election of the Speaker, Michael Martin.

The SNP candidate is Ian MacQuarrie. Ian is 36 years old, married with two children and lives in Springburn, Glasgow. He grew up in West Lothian and after leaving Queensferry High School went on to take an Honours Degree in Chemistry at Edinburgh University. He now works in Glasgow as Senior Analyst with Thomson Scientific. An experienced activist, with several local government campaigns to his credit, Ian is contesting a Parliamentary seat for the first time. Ian is a National Union of Journalists (NUJ) shop steward and enjoys cycling, hillwalking, reading and films.

The Tory candidate is Peter Finnie.

The Lib Dem candidate is Dr Conor Snowden who was born in 1976 and educated at Bangor Grammar School in Northern Ireland, and at the Universities of Durham and Edinburgh, where he obtained a PhD in Earth Science. He was worked as a Church of Scotland care worker, as a parliamentary assistant to Donald Gorrie MSP and as constituency organiser for Mik Pringle MSP. He is married and lives in Edinburgh. His interests include voluntary work, hill walking, opera and travel. At the 2003 Scottish parliamentary election, he stood at the Western isles, coming fourth with 4.02 %.

The SSP candidate is Gregor McEwan, a a 26 year old law student who works part time to make ends meet. Gregor has lived in Motherwell all his life and has campaigned strongly against he unfair Council Tax and in favour of free school meals and free prescription charges. He was also heavily involved in supporting the nursery nurses during their bitter battle with New Labour for a decent wage.

The Free Scotland Party candidate is the photographer Dallas Carter.

The Operation Christian Vote candidate is Coral Thompson.

Notional 2001 result

Logo	Party	Denver			Baxter
		Votes	%		Votes	%
	Labour	21,535	56.75 %		22,239	56.77 %
	Scottish National Party	7,757	20.45 %		8,247	21.05 %
	Conservative & Unionist	3,580	9.44 %		3,703	9.45 %
	Liberal Democrat	3,297	8.69 %		3,306	8.44 %
	Scottish Socialist Party	1,568	4.13 %		1,560	3.98 %
	Others	192	0.51 %		120	0.31 %
Notional Labour win	Notional Labour majority	13,778	36.33 %		13,992	35.72 %

Local Government wards in the constituency

This new seat consists of the whole of the old Motherwell & Wishaw seat plus three wards from Hamilton North & Bellshill and one ward from Airdrie & Shotts.