Ex-SNP rising star accuses party of 'rigging' selection to block his bid to become MP
dailyrecord.co.ukA former SNP rising star has accused the party’s hierarchy of “rigging” an internal selection battle to ensure a preferred candidate won a safe seat.North Lanarkshire councillor Paul Di Mascio believes he would have been a certainty to win the support of local members to stand in the 2021 Airdrie and Shotts by-election.However, he has claimed his candidacy and others were blocked by former FM Nicola Sturgeon, ex-SNP CEO Peter Murrell and party chair Kirsten Oswald, before Anum Qaisar was parachuted in.Anum – whose 2015 wedding was attended by Sturgeon, her husband Murrell and Humza Yousaf – went on to take her place in the House of Commons after winning the seat aged just 28.The privately educated former teacher had been a prominent member of the Labour Party until September 2014.Di Mascio said: “I believe there is no question that the selection process to stand as a candidate was rigged to make sure Anum got that seat.“I was a local candidate and councillor who was very well known and liked by the membership in Airdrie and Shotts.“I don’t want to sound big-headed because I absolutely am not – however, I have absolutely no doubt that I would have been selected in a members’ vote if I had been allowed to run.“I felt party members and local constituents deserved to have a candidate who lived in the Airdrie and Shotts area.“Instead I was interviewed by SNP chair and business convener Kirsten Oswald and then told that I had failed the process.
There wasn’t much explanation given. There were other local candidates who weren’t even given an interview.“Branch members then had a candidate who was not from the area imposed on them through a process that had clearly been manipulated to make sure Anum won.”Anum was selected to
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