Candidates and Constituency Assessments

'The majority in the new Ochil and South Perthshire seat would be cut under past voting evidence to 1617, according to Baxter, with Denver calling it "extremely marginal". According to Baxter, polling trends suggest it could move the Nationalists' way by next year, putting Labour's Martin O'Neill at risk.' Douglas Fraser, Political Editor in the Sunday Herald, 11 January 2004.

Ochil & South Perthshire

Candidates

	Labour	Gordon Banks
	Scottish National Party	Annabelle Ewing MP
	Conservative & Unionist	Elizabeth Smith
	Liberal Democrat	Catherine Whittingham
	Scottish Socialist Party	Chic Gillan
	Scottish Green Party	George Baxter
	Free Scotland Party	Maitland Kelly
	UK Independence Party	David Bushby

Candidates

The Labour candidate is Gordon Banks. At the 2003 Scottish parliamentary election, he was third on Labour's list for Mid Scotland & Fife.

Annabelle Ewing was born in Glasgow on 20 August 1960. She attended Craigholme School in Glasgow and Glasgow University, where she graduated with an Honours degree in EC Law, thereafter pursuing post-graduate international legal studies in Europe. Annabelle qualified as a solicitor in 1986, having worked her apprenticeship in a Saltcoats family law firm. After some 10 years working in Brussels as a lawyer, Annabelle returned to Scotland to run a small legal practice where she represented all kinds of folk and worked to find solutions to their problems. Annabelle joined the SNP in 1976. She stood in the 1999 Scottish Parliamentary Elections for Stirling where she doubled the SNP vote, with a 11.5% swing to the SNP, relegating the Tories to third place. In September 1999, she contested the Hamilton South Westminster By-Election for the SNP, where she came within 556 votes of Labour on a swing of 22.6% to the SNP. She stood for Perth constituency in the 2001 Westminster Election and was elected, in what was the top Tory target seat, with a majority of 48. As MP for Perth, Annabelle is known as a spirited fighter for her constituents and her country. She has campaigned on a number of local jobs issues and general issues such as pensioner poverty, Hep C victims, Dungavel and Deepcut. She famously described the Defence Secretary as a "backstabbing coward" following his betrayal of the Scottish Regiments. Annabelle is Deputy Leader of the SNP Westminster Group and Westminster Spokesman on Home Affairs, Education & Skills and the Law Officers. Since her election, she has always been in the list of the top ten hardest working Scottish MP's in the House of Commons. Annabelle is the daughter of Winnie Ewing, President of the SNP and former MP, MEP and MSP. Her brother Fergus is the SNP MSP for Inverness East, Nairn & Lochaber and her sister-in-law, Margaret is the MSP for Moray

Tory candidate, Elizabeth Smith, was until last year (2003) secretary to the Scottish Conservative Policy Forum. She trained as a teacher and has also been the Scottish Conservative Spokesperson on Education. She has been an Edinburgh City councillor and stood for Edinburgh West at the 1997 Westminster election, coming second with 21.3 %. She also contested Perth at the 2001 Westminster election coming second with 29.6 % of the vote, 48 votes behind the SNP's Annabelle Ewing.

The Lib Dem candidate, Catherine Whittingham, was born in 1970 and educated locally and at Dundee University where she graduated with a BSc. She is married and works as a Pensions Supervisor with Aviva. She is a member of the Carnbo Village Association. Catherine Whittingham stood for Perth & Kinross council in 2003 and also contested Ochil in the 2003 Scottish parliamentray election where she came fourth with 8.3 %.

The SSP candidate is Chic Gillan.

The Scottish Green Party is George Baxter who lives in Perthshire with his partner and two children. He has worked for and supported environmental and community campaigns throughout Scotland for over 15 years. He is particularly interested in promoting sustainable business and improving the planning system so that local people get a better deal.

The Free Scotland Party candidate is Maitland Kelly.

The UK Independence Party candidate is David Bushby.

Notional 2001 result

Logo	Party	Denver			Baxter
		Votes	%		Votes	%
	Labour	14,947	33.39 %		15,421	34.32 %
	Scottish National Party	14,126	31.56 %		13,804	30.72 %
	Conservative & Unionist	9,871	22.05 %		9,541	21.23 %
	Liberal Democrat	4,690	10.48 %		4,872	10.35 %
	Scottish Socialist Party	803	1.79 %		948	2.11 %
	Others	326	0.73 %		330	0.73 %
Notional Labour win	Notional Labour majority	821	1.83 %		1,617	3.60 %

Local Government wards in the constituency

This consists of 21 wards from the old Ochil constituency, 9 from the old Perth constituency, plus one split between Perth & North Tayside.