Former Better Together chief Blair McDougall selected as Scottish Labour election candidate

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The former chief of the Better Together campaign will stand for Scottish Labour at next year's general election.Blair McDougall will contest the marginal seat of East Renfrewshire, which is currently held by the SNP.He remains best known as the campaign director of Better Together, the official cross-party campaign against Scottish independence at the 2014 referendum.McDougall remains a divisive figure among many indy supporters as a result.Better Together was formed with the support of Scottish Labour, the Scottish Tories and the Scottish Liberal Democrats and was led by former chancellor Alistair Darling.The campaign was successful in securing a no vote - but the decision for Labour to campaign alongside the Tories at the referendum has since been questioned following the party's collapse at the 2015 general election.McDougall said: "Thrilled to have been selected as Labour’s candidate for my home constituency of East Renfrewshire."I grew up here, live here and will fight like hell for the community I love.

I’m out campaigning later if anyone fancies it?"McDougall had previously stood for the seat at the 2017 general election but came third with 26.7 per cent of the vote.He also worked as an advisor in Jim Murphy's 2014 campaign for the Scottish Labour leadership.

Murphy lost the East Renfrewshire seat in 2014.He also worked on David Miliband and Jess Phillips' unsuccessful UK Labour leadership campaigns.McDougall will go up against sitting SNP MP Kirsten Oswald.

The Tories will also fancy their chances at winning the seat, which they held between 2017 and 2019.East Renfrewshire is not one of Scottish Labour's key target seats.