First candidate declared for December election

The first candidate to stand against Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael in the December general election has been declared.

Scottish Labour members in the Northern Isles have endorsed chairwoman of the Orkney Labour party Coilla Drake as their candidate for the forthcoming election.

On Tuesday evening MPs in Westminster voted resoundingly in favour of holding a poll on 12th December in order to break the Brexit deadlock.

Incumbent MP Alistair Carmichael abstained from the final vote after a Labour amendment supported by the SNP and Liberal Democrats to hold the election on 9th December was defeated.

Mrs Drake, who lives in Westray, said: “Our country and Orkney and Shetland need an end to austerity, to policies which have caused poverty, inequality and an explosion of food banks and homelessness. We need proper investment in Scotland from Westminster and under Labour we will get that.”

The former lecturer and veterinary nurse is a recent Labour convert, having joined the party shortly after Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader in 2015.

December’s election will be the third general election in just four years, and the second which is likely to feature Brexit as the central issue.