SOUTH Lanarkshire Labour is in chaos after the council’s deputy leader stood down as a Holyrood candidate days after his election agent was suspended from the same local authority.
Jackie Burns quit as a candidate for “personal reasons” amid a row over his agent Peter Henry’s temporary departure from the council over a taxi contracts row.
It has now emerged that Henry has also been suspended from the party as well as from his local authority post.
The Sunday Herald revealed last week that Henry, the council’s Passenger Services Co-ordinator, was off work following an anonymous complaint.
The investigation by internal auditors is believed to centre on the £210,000 of taxi-related work awarded to Henry’s nephew Stephen McGhee.
Eight contracts – worth £32,300, £51,244, £19,000, £24,320, £18,300, £31,720, £18,056 and £15,288 – were listed on the council’s website.
Henry, a long-standing council employee, was also pencilled in to be election agent to Burns, who was selected last year as Labour’s candidate for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse.
The seat is currently held by the SNP’s Christina McKelvie.
Burns, a father of four, said at the time of the selection: “I am honoured and delighted to have been selected by Labour Party members in such a convincing manner.
“The success of any campaign is organisation and planning, and I believe that as a party we will have a clear, defined message about voting Labour.”
Forty-eight hours after the news broke about Henry’s suspension, Burns emailed colleagues to say he was stepping down as the candidate.
“Since being selected in February 2014, my personal circumstances have changed and I have recently had to focus more of my time and attention to supporting and caring for my young children,” he wrote.
According to an internet registration service, Burns’ campaign website was registered in July.
A crowd-funding website was also set up with the aim of raising £1,500 for his campaign by October 29th.
According to the site, the strategy failed to raise a single penny.
A party source said the Henry investigation and Burns resignation are unrelated.
Burns attracted negative publicity in May after it was revealed that he was one of a number of Holyrood candidates to go on holiday during the general election, at which Labour lost all but one of its seats north of the border.
An SNP spokesperson said:
"That Labour have lost an election candidate just days after his agent was suspended leaves Labour in Lanarkshire with further questions to answer. No wonder more and more people in Lanarkshire - and across Scotland - are putting their trust in the SNP as we approach next year's elections."
A spokesman for Scottish Labour party: “Jackie Burns has decided to stand down as Labour's candidate for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse for personal reasons. A timetable for the selection of a new candidate will be published in due course."
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