Candidates and Constituency Assessments

'There are some Labour Members, or there would be if they were here, who believe that an English Member of Parliament like myself has nothing relevant to contribute to this debate because they see this Bill as an exclusively Scottish measure. That probably explains the answer to an earlier question - why there are so few English Members here. Most of them have worked out that they will not be listened to in any event, so why bother to have a say? Scottish Members who think like that are wrong. I am certain that there is a relevant English dimension and I am just as certain that that dimension is potentially very nasty.' David Wilshire (Con, Spelthorne), Hansard, 12 th January 1998.

North Ayrshire & Arran

Candidates

	Labour	Katy Clark
	Scottish National Party	Anthony Gurney
	Conservative & Unionist	Stewart Connell
	Liberal Democrat	Cllr George White
	Scottish Socialist Party	Colin Turbett
	UK Independence Party	John Pursley
	Socialist Labour Party	Louise McDaid

Candidates

The Labour candidate is Katy Clark, a legal officer for Unison in London.

The SNP candidate is Tony Gurney. Tony has been an active member of the SNP for 10 years, many of them spent as convener of Ardrossan Branch. He has held various positions within the constituency organisation and is currently press officer and acting secretary. He has been closely involved with the Scottish and Westminster elections since 1999 managing to ensure that two of the branch members were elected to the Scottish Parliament. He has stood for election to North Ayrshire council on four occasions, latterly losing by just 24 votes whilst forcing the Labour incumbents into third place. Tony is married with two young children and works as a Lecturer in Computing Science.

Tory candidate, Stewart Connell, has been a member of the Conservative Party since 1989. In 2003 he held the position of Chairman for the North Paisley Conservative Association and he led the 2001 General Election campaign in the Anniesland area of Glasgow. Stewart works for the Administrative Officer Army Personnel Centre, (MOD) in Glasgow and is married with one daughter.

The Lib Dem candidate is George White who was born in 1954 and educated at Port Glasgow High School and paisley College. He worked with IBM in Greenock for 20 years, was a subcontractor, a T-Mobile. He is married with four daughters. Since 2004 he has represented Upper Gourock on Inverclyde Council.

The SSP candidate is Colin Turbett who has been an active trade unionist and socialist for most of his adult life, currently chairperson of the North Ayrshire UNISON branch. Colin has lived on the Isle Of Arran for the past 17 years and as a social worker for 25 years is accutely aware of housing shortages, poverty and deprivation. Colin believes that a big SSP vote give an impetus to those who will converge on the G8 Summit in July to protest against globalisation and in favour of fair trade, international aid and policies that promote real justice across the globe.

The UK Independence Party candidate is John Pursley.

The Socialist Labour Party candidate is Louise McDaid.

Notional 2001 result

Logo	Party	Denver			Baxter
		Votes	%		Votes	%
	Labour	21,484	48.37 %		21,395	48.73 %
	Scottish National Party	9,344	21.04 %		9,332	21.26 %
	Conservative & Unionist	7,759	17.47 %		7,700	17.54 %
	Liberal Democrat	3,898	8.78 %		3,745	8.53 %
	Scottish Socialist Party	1,408	3.17 %		1,215	2.77 %
	Others	519	1.17 %		514	1.17 %
Notional Labour win	Notional Labour majority	12,140	27.33 %		12,063	27.48 %

Local Government wards in the constituency

This consists of the whole of the old Cunninghame North seat plus five wards from the old Cunninghame South seat.