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Minister pans Labour for 'shipping in' London councillor to run in Highlands

Minister pans Labour for 'shipping in' London councillor to run in Highlands

The National30-04-2025

Labour have selected Eva Kestner to contest the Caithness, Sutherland and Ross seat next year despite her living around 650 miles away in Lewisham, where she works as a councillor.
It is the second time Anas Sarwar's party have selected her as a candidate for the area, after she ran in the General Election last year for the equivalent Westminster constituency.
Public Health Minister Maree Todd, who currently represents the area for the SNP, said the area did not deserve to be represented by "more of the Prime Minister's cronies".
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She said: "Given Labour's disastrous start in Government, it's no surprise that no one from Caithness, Sutherland and Ross is willing to back Keir Starmer as a local Labour candidate.
'Labour has form on shipping London-based candidates in to Scotland, and it's no wonder.
"Labour is pulling out all the stops to support industry in England, but offering nothing for Scotland - particularly for my constituents in the Highlands.
'The people of the Highlands deserve real local champions – not more of the Prime Minister's cronies.'
The selection of Kestner by Sarwar's party came in for heavy criticism on social media.
Andrea Cowan, an SNP councillor in Rutherglen, questioned how the selection was acceptable after Scottish Labour accused the SNP of "parachuting" in Katy Loudon to contest the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election.
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Loudon does not live in the constituency but does stay just over the border in Rutherglen. She is hoping to keep the seat in SNP hands following the tragic death of Christina McKelvie last month.
Cowan said on Twitter/X: "So, let's get this straight, a councillor from Lewisham, 650 miles from Caithness, is fine to stand for Labour in next year's Holyrood elections, but an experienced councillor from South Lanarkshire, standing in Hamilton is being parachuted in?"
Last year, Labour were accused of "parachuting in paper candidates" as Kestner was among a raft of General Election picks based south of the Border.
After Wilma Brown was removed as a candidate in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath following an outcry over "racist" social media posts, Melanie Ward ran in her place despite living in London.
The party's candidate in Angus and Perthshire Glens was Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, who was a councillor based more than 500 miles away in the city of Canterbury, in Kent.
Some of the other candidates from south of the Border who ran for Labour last year include Conor Savage who was selected to contest Orkney and Shetland despite living in Edinburgh. He previously stood in Bangor for Plaid Cymru.
After being asked by The National why a London councillor had been chosen to run in the Caithness, Sutherland and Ross seat, a Scottish Labour spokesperson said Kestner grew up in Scotland and had previously worked in the Highlands and Islands.
They said: 'The SNP has failed the Highlands and Islands for too long, but in 2026 we can choose a change in direction with Scottish Labour.
'All Scottish Labour candidates are democratically selected by local members and this candidates will be a fantastic champion for the communities where she is standing.'

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Britons ‘better learn to speak Russian' without major defence spending hike, Nato chief warns
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Britons ‘better learn to speak Russian' without major defence spending hike, Nato chief warns

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Public perceptions of Starmer and Farage are perhaps a bit hazy
Public perceptions of Starmer and Farage are perhaps a bit hazy

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Public perceptions of Starmer and Farage are perhaps a bit hazy

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Winter fuel payment U-turn in numbers
Winter fuel payment U-turn in numbers

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Winter fuel payment U-turn in numbers

The government's decision to largely reverse its cuts to winter fuel payments has raised questions about its spending and savings plans - and its fiscal Verify has been looking at the the key numbers. What has changed on winter fuel? At the time Labour won the 2024 general election, the Department for Work and Pensions was projecting that 10.8 million pensioners in England and Wales would be eligible for winter fuel payments in payments are worth either £200 or £300 per household. 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The government estimated that the cost of the winter fuel payment system it inherited in 2024-25 would have been £ estimated that its initial reform last year would cut this bill by £1.4bn in 2024-25 (rising to £1.5bn in 2025-26) taking the cost of the system down to £0.5bnNow the government says the cost of the system after its latest change will be £1.25bn - a saving of £450m relative to a system in which all pensioners were eligible to receive the government added that this £450m saving has not yet been certified by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) - the government's official if it transpired, this saving would be only a third of the original £1.5bn savings target. 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If the government were to reverse or water down those reforms, as some Labour MPs are urging, it would create a considerably larger financial headache for the chancellor in terms of meeting her fiscal rules specify that she has to be projected to be on course to balance the government's day-to-day spending budget (which excludes spending on infrastructure) by March 2025, the OBR projected that she had just £9.9bn of "headroom" against this rule, a very small amount of leeway given the size of overall government spending and the welfare cuts would wipe out around half of many economists expect the chancellor's projected headroom to be further eroded by the OBR in any case in the Autumn Budget as a result of downgraded growth forecasts and an increase in government market borrowing costs in recent months. What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

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