Former aide to Charles Kennedy bidding to win Holyrood seat for Lib Dems
A former aide to ex-Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy has been announced as the party’s candidate in a target seat at Holyrood.
David Green, who worked for Mr Kennedy, who died in 2015, is standing for the party in the upcoming elections, hoping to win the Caithness, Sutherland and Ross seat from the SNP.
Former actor turned charity worker Adam Harley is running for the Lib Dems in another of their target seats, Strathkelvin and Bearsden.
The party is also hoping councillor and environmental campaigner Sanne Dijkstra-Downie can win the Edinburgh Northern seat.
She joined Mr Cole-Hamilton on a visit to the newly relaunched Edinburgh Food and Drink Academy as the party’s full candidate list was unveiled.
Speaking at the academy, Mr Cole-Hamilton said that the “Liberal Democrats are winning again, with more councillors, a record number of MPs and more to come”.
He stated: “Scotland has so much going for it, but right now, people are tired and frustrated.
“They’re staring down the barrel of soaring bills, huge waits for GPs and dentists, the national embarrassment of the ferries fiasco and an education system that just isn’t what it used to be.
“Scottish Liberal Democrats believe that Scotland deserves better than this.”
With the Holyrood election now less than two months away, he insisted his party has a “realistic plan” to help Scots with the cost-of-living crisis, improve healthcare, provide better transport on the roads and ferries and “get Scottish education back to its best”.
Maree Todd, the SNP MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, hit out at her Lib Dem rival.
She insisted that people in the area “deserve so much better than Westminster governments that have allowed heating costs to soar while Brexit has starved our hospitality and social care sector of staff”.
Ms Todd said: “Just this week John Swinney was forced to step in and double the Westminster government’s pitiful heating oil support fund while he has introduced a £2 bus cap for the Highlands and Islands and announced up to £10,000 for first-time buyers to help them buy a home in the communities they grew up in – that’s what you get with an SNP government firmly on Scotland’s side.”