Scottish Socialist Party
General Election 2005
Press Release: 11/04/05

SSP stand down candidate to back Rose Gentle in East Kilbride

The Scottish Socialist Party has agreed not to contest the East Kilbride constituency in the Westminster election.
Instead the SSP will be backing anti-war campaigner, Rose Gentle, in the seat of Armed Forces Minister, Adam Ingram.
Rose is the mother of Gordon Gentle, the soldier from Pollok, Glasgow, who was killed in Iraq.
East Kilbride will be the only constituency in Scotland that the SSP will not contest.
In line with the party constitution, party members at branch, regional and Executive Committee levels all agreed that the party should stand down.

Cathy Pederson, who had been selected as the SSP candidate in East Kilbride said:
“The party locally and nationally has tremendous admiration for the principles and courage of Rose Gentle in her campaign to bring the troops home from Iraq.
"We will be enthusiastically campaigning to hold Adam Ingram to account for the lies, death and destruction resulting from the Iraq war.”

Carolyn Leckie MSP, member of the local East Kilbride SSP branch said:
"I would normally be against the party standing down for independent candidates.
"Cathy Pederson would have been a great candidate and I'm sorry she's no longer standing.
"Rose Gentle lost her son in the carnage in Iraq and she is standing on an anti war, troops out platform.
"Rose Gentle not only deserves the support of the SSP but of all parties that claim to be anti-war.
"The Greens, Lib-Dems and the SNP should also stand down their candidates.
"This is a tremendous opportunity to strike a blow at the heart of Tony Blair’s war cabinet."

Colin Fox, SSP convener said:
"We are proud to back Rose Gentle in East Kilbride.
"Nor will we let Labour run a “Basil Fawlty” campaign in the other Scottish seats.
"Every time they try not to mention the war, we will shout out; “You lied to get us in to this illegal, unjust war” and we will demand “Bring the troops home!”."
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