Scottish Labour selects East Lothian candidate

The Scottish Labour party yesterdayselected the last of its 59 general election candidates when it chose a party campaigner to stand in East Lothian. Fiona O'Donnell, a Labour campaigning specialist for the Lothians area, was selected to replace Anne Moffat, who was controversially sacked as Labour's candidate by local party members last month. The 50-year-old O'Donnell, a former mental health worker with both children and adults, currently lives in Edinburgh, outside the constituency, but previously brought up her young family in the East Lothian coastal village of Port Seton. Her selection came less than 24 hours before the prime minister, Gordon Brown, was due to call the general election for 6 May. Labour officials appear confident that O'Donnell can successfully defend the party's 7,600 majority in East Lothian, but opposition parties believe the Moffat affair has significantly damaged Labour, which is also struggling with the economy and the expenses scandal. As a senior party official, she was sent into the constituency to help resolve the dispute between Moffat and the local party. She beat off competition from Kirsty O'Brien, a No 10 policy adviser and a special adviser to Harriet Harman, and Ayesha Hazarika, a part time stand-up comedian, to win selection. O'Donnell said: "This election is a clear choice between a Labour or Tory government, and we go forward with a united local party determined to win the trust of local people and serve the county of East Lothian."