Two more candidates have been chosen for the January by-election to elect two new councillors in the Colinton/Fairmilehead ward where three councillors have resigned in the last six months.
Edinburgh Labour have selected Conor Savage to stand in place of their last candidate, veteran Sheila Gilmore, who only won 1,441 votes, trailing in third place behind the winning LibDem and the Conservative candidate, Neil Cuthbert. Mr Savage previously stood as a Plaid Cymru candidate in Bangor, Wales, in 2017 when he was in last place among six candidates. And, at the recent general election he was the Labour candidate for Orkney and Shetland – although he lives in Edinburgh. He won 1,493 votes but the seat was retained by Alastair Carmichael for the Liberal Democrats.
His social media account still shows that he is a Labour candidate for Orkney and Shetland.
He is described as a sustainable finance expert and marine scientist and when he stood in the summer he confirmed to our colleagues on Shetland News that he would be happy to relocate north. We have contacted Mr Savage requesting an interview.
Edinburgh Liberal Democrats have chosen Peter Nicholson for whom we have little information as yet, although we have emailed the group leader Cllr Kevin Lang asking for a bio and a photo.
Conservative councillor, Jason Rust, who is the sole councillor for the ward at present commented on the Labour selection. He said:”It does concern me if Labour have selected a candidate willing to stand for any party, in any part of the country, just to try to win a seat. Local voters have already been badly let down by the Liberal Democrats with their scandalous Dubai debacle and this further costly by-election. They do not want Labour with their infighting taking them for granted either.”
The three resignations were: firstly Councillor Scott Arthur who was elected to Westminster in July, secondly the newly elected LibDem councillor Louise Spence who resigned after just six days saying that she was moving to Dubai, and thirdly Councillor Marco Biagi who represented the SNP in the ward and who is taking up a position as a special adviser to the first minister.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
