Voters want to talk about Labour divisions not Margaret Ferrier, claims SNP by-election candidate

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Voters in Rutherglen and Hamilton West want to talk about divisions in Labour and not Margaret Ferrier, the SNP candidate in a crunch by-election has claimed.Katy Loudon insisted the constituency's shamed former MP had been raised just once on the doorsteps since she started campaigning this summer.Ferrier was booted out after more than 10 per cent of local voters signed a recall petition to remove her from office after she was found to have broken strict lockdown travel rules after testing positive for covid.The resulting by-election is due to take place in October and has seen Labour and SNP pour huge resources into their campaigns to win the marginal seat.Asked how often Ferrier's name was being brought up, Loudon said: "In the months that we have now been chapping doors, quite literally once."I introduced myself as the candidate and the person was delighted to meet me.

She was an SNP supporter, and said 'that was a shame about Margaret, wasn't it?'"And we both agreed it was a sad situation. But at the end of the day, she should have gone when she had the opportunity."Speaking to the Record while campaigning in Rutherglen, Loudon said she was among the voters to sign the recall petition.Ferrier lost the SNP whip in 2020 but repeatedly refused to stand down despite being urged to do so by many in her local party branch.Loudon is now tasked with retaining the seat for Humza Yousaf's party - which would be a huge boost for the Nationalists ahead of a general election which is expected to see Labour make gains across the country.But the SNP candidate insisted voters could see how divided Labour was on key policy issues.Keir Starmer appeared alongside Anas Sarwar in the town this week where they quizzed on why the party