 | 'Mrs Adams first raised concerns regarding FCB in the House of Commons at the request of Strathclyde Police. The fact that £320,000 is now missing [from the company] fully justifies those concerns.' A Labour party source. |  |
| 'Mrs Adams first raised concerns regarding FCB in the House of Commons at the request of Strathclyde Police. The fact that £320,000 is now missing [from the company] fully justifies those concerns.' A Labour party source. | |
The independent councillor, described by the Labour chief whip Nick Brown yesterday as "a known opponent of the Labour Party", said Mr Graham's reported attempt to deflect the blame for the gay and AIDS rumours was based on a misunderstanding.
Indeed, Mr Mack, who first told his side of the story to The Scotsman yesterday, leapt to the MP's defence at a press conference yesterday, claiming Mr Graham had been unfairly smeared.
The bond between the two allies was strong, dating back to when Mr Graham took a job in 1983 as office manager for Robertson & Ross, a firm of solicitors which represented many of his political supporters and handled compensation claims for industrial injuries.
Ironically, Mr Graham is now having to rely on its offices to represent him in his fight to clear his name, after he was named in Mr McMaster's suicide note.
At Robertson & Ross Mr Graham quickly became friendly with a young assistant looking to build a legal career. His name was Paul Mack, an articulate, ambitious man with eyes on becoming a Labour councillor.
As their friendship grew Mr Mack helped Mr Graham win the selection to fight the seat of Renfrew West and Inverclyde. It was a seat which had been held by the Tories and there was little expectation that Mr Graham would do well but on election night in 1987 he took the seat with a 4,000 majority.
Mr Mack realised his own ambition in 1992 and soon was deputy Labour leader on Renfrew District Council.
Political enemies claim his ambitions did not end there. They claim that Mr Graham saw himself as a kingmaker and was involved in smearing Mr McMaster and two other Renfrewshire MPs, Irene Adams and Norman Godman, with a view to having them deselected to make way for Mr Mack and two other councillors. It is a claim Mr Mack denies.
If such a plot existed it did not come off. By last year, Mr Mack was expelled from the party for contesting the Hunterhill ward in the unitary elections as an official Labour candidate.
Jim Taylor, a Paisley North party member, withdrew his nomination as official candidate hours before the nomination deadline, as had been rumoured in Labour circles. Mr Mack mysteriously appeared just before the deadline with a completed nomination form and stood for Labour.
The role of Mr Taylor, who is currently suspended from office, is to be further investigated now by Nick Brown. Meanwhile, Richard Manser, another controversial Labour councillor with convictions for assault, is to remain suspended after his name was also submitted for the unitary elections despite being excluded from the party's list of official candidates.
Labour fear that the links between Mr Graham and Mr Mack, who had a common friend in Harry Revie, Graham's election agent, continued to grow, despite the setbacks.
In the run-up to the general election, Mr Mack, by this time an independent councillor and constant thorn in the side of Labour's fragile Renfrewshire Council administration, was spotted meeting the MP.
Mr Mack admits a meeting took place but insists he only wanted to see the MP because he heard he was getting involved in a photo opportunity with Rangers players. Mr Mack said his son was a fan and wanted to be involved.
Mr Mack also admitted yesterday that on the day of the Mr McMaster's funeral, he met Richard Vassie, a Renfrewshire SNP councillor, since suspended, who later alleged to a journalist that the MP had been having a gay affair with an underage partner. Mr Mack denies as "monstrous" any suggestion that he was involved in this smear, a smear which McMaster had hinted would materialise in his suicide note.
Yesterday, Mr Mack continued to taunt Labour in Renfrewshire, calling for an independent Monklands-style inquiry into Renfrewshire Council which has been dogged by bitter in-fighting.
As The Scotsman reported yesterday, Mr Mack accused a council faction led by Provost Nancy Allison of dirty tricks. The former deputy leader of the old Renfrew District Council, criticised in Mr McMaster's suicide note, accused supporters of the Paisley North MP Irene Adams of leaking details of the smears. He also claimed they raised concerns about drugs links with the Paisley security firm FCB and about membership irregularities to ensure she was not be deselected.
Yesterday, the Renfrewshire Council leader Hugh Henry, Provost Nancy Allison and sources close to Mrs Adams dismissed Mr Mack's comments.
Mrs Allison denied Mr Mack's allegation that splits within the council stemmed from the failure of Mrs Allison in 1992 to secure the provostship at a time when Labour had only 21 members out of a total of 45.
Mr Mack had claimed the Allison camp sought to oust those Labour members who did not go along with their advice not to have anything to do with the running of the administration.
Mrs Allison accused him of bearing a grudge because members of the Labour group took a dim view of an assault on a woman which Mr Mack was convicted of several years ago.
Mr Mack admits telling journalists he had heard rumours that the MP was homosexual and had AIDS but he denies originating them. He also admitted at a press conference in Paisley yesterday he had once described Mr McMaster as "spineless and treacherous".
He added: "That Gordon and I were political rivals and indulged in some fairly robust heated exchanges was no secret. But what I had to say to Gordon I said to his face."
Mr Mack said he had tried to keep a "respectful silence" over the past three weeks since the suicide out of sympathy for the MP's family, and others should have done likewise.
"Instead, we witnessed the most degrading, cynical, scandalous piece of political opportunism that has come out of this proud but beleaguered town."
The idea that he was the author of the smears against Mr McMaster was being used by those he had "rubbed up the wrong way", he said. Mr Graham, he claimed, had also been the target of a smear campaign since the MP's death.
Calling for a judicial inquiry into local politics in Paisley, he alleged the council was run by a Militant cabal and that 11 councillors had relatives with jobs within the authority.
Mr Henry admitted he had been involved with Militant "on the periphery" several years ago but said Labour was fully aware of his past.
He said allegations that councillors had relatives within the authority related mainly to people working for the former district council while Mr Mack was deputy leader and in a position to address any concerns. In any case, a staff commission had since approved all the transfers of staff to the new authority.
Mrs Allison claimed Mr Mack, working with a minority of opposition members, had made slanderous remarks and that police had to be called because they showed no regard for standing orders and democratic debate.
Mr Henry added: "The contamination of politics in Renfrewshire has been orchestrated by Paul Mack. I think we are all diminished by Gordon McMaster's death but I don't believe we have anything to be ashamed of."
Mrs Adams was unavailable for comment yesterday but sources close to her dismissed Mr Mack's claims.
One said: "Mrs Adams first raised concerns regarding FCB in the House of Commons at the request of Strathclyde Police. The fact that £320,000 is now missing [from the company] fully justifies those concerns."
In relation to the fears she expressed regarding membership irregularities, the source added: "These concerns seem to have been borne out by the fact that the Paisley North Constituency Party was suspended by the Scottish executive committee of the Labour Party after they found irregularities in membership."
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