Glasgow Southside

Labour Party members in the new Glasgow Southside seat meet tomorrow evening to select our candidate for next May's Scottish Parliament election.

I have been shortlisted with another three nominees after we were proposed by members at meetings of local Party Branches and affiliated organisations such as the Co-operative Party and trade union branches.

I will be speaking to members at the meeting about my record of election success - running and winning campaigns in marginal seats - along with my experience over seven years as a local councillor in senior roles.


TUESDAY, 20 JULY 2010

Result: I was selected as candidate tonight with 65.5% of votes cast by local members. Thank you to everyone who took part.


Scottish Labour Party press release

CURRAN SELECTED TO FIGHT GLASGOW SOUTHSIDE SEAT FOR LABOUR
SNP 'RIPPING OFF' GLASGOW - STURGEON PUTTING 'PETTY PARTY POLITICS' BEFORE LOCAL PEOPLE

Councillor Stephen Curran has tonight been selected by local Labour party members to fight the Glasgow Southside seat in the Scottish Parliament elections in May 2011.

Councillor Curran will contest the new seat in which Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon MSP is expected to stand for the SNP.

Speaking following his selection, Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate Stephen Curran said:

"The SNP are ripping off Glasgow and letting Scotland down."

"Locally the SNP have ripped off our Council with the worst grant settlement since devolution and ripped off Shawlands by refusing town centre regeneration funds."

"Voters increasingly see Nicola Sturgeon putting petty party politics first as Deputy First Minister in Holyrood."

"I am committed to always putting the Southside first in representing every community across Scotland's most diverse constituency."

"My key priorities are tackling anti-social behaviour and delivering improvements in housing because I know people locally feel particularly let down by the SNP on these issues."

"I am grateful for the tremendous encouragement and support shown across the Southside and delighted to be selected as Labour's candidate."

"I'm already working hard locally with a strong team of MPs, Councillors and party members in campaigning across the new constituency speaking to people and listening to their concerns."

"I'm not taking anything for granted and will fight for every vote."

Ideas for a fairer Scotland

Last year I was elected in a postal ballot to represent Labour Party members from Glasgow South and Glasgow South West constituencies on our Scottish Policy Forum.

The road to the 2011 manifesto is well underway. At Scottish Labour conference this October, we will agree the final year policy documents that will form the basis for next May's Scottish Parliament election manifesto. However, it isn’t too late to send in your response to our second year policy consultation.

Due to the General Election, the opportunity to take part in the consultation was extended to Friday 30 July. Constituency parties received paper copies of the consultation document and have been meeting to form their own replies.

To send in your own individual views, please download Ideas for a fairer Scotland and feed in your own response.

Patient safety undermined

Support Scottish Labour's call to defend the jobs of doctors, nurses, midwives and other essential workers in the NHS.

"The reality of this SNP Government is 'More Nats, Fewer Nurses'. The cuts that the SNP are imposing on the NHS will undermine patient safety and we need to fight them."

"You simply cannot remove thousands of doctors, nurses and midwives without damaging standards of care. Labour believe that these cuts are unacceptable and we will campaign relentlessly to defend the NHS."

"We are also asking MSPs from all parties to back our call on ministers to immediately publish the workforce planning projections for every Scottish health board, so that we know the scale of the job losses the SNP are demanding across the country."

Jackie Baillie MSP
Scottish Labour's Shadow Health Secretary