The Labour candidate is Anne Picking, a shadowy and highly elusive character who reputedly succeeded John Home Robertson as MP for East Lothian in 2001.
Her selection for East Lothian in 2001 was a surprise as she was, and remains, largely unknown in the constituency. Even Picking’s election agent has failed to justify her prolonged disappearances, merely commenting in the local paper that Ms Picking was not available.
Picking’s attendance record in the House of Commons was the poorest of any Scottish MP, while her expenses claims were amongst the highest in the UK: she claimed ?39,744 for travel in 2004, more than any other MP in the whole of the UK. This can be compared to Alistair Carmichael in Orkney & Shetland who claimed ?27,366 for travel, while David Hamilton in neighbouring Midlothian claimed just ?18,883. Picking’s total expense claim in 2004 was ?148,818, in the top ten highest claims for the whole of the UK.
Source: Scottish Politics
All the bold text is my own
I’m not a fan of this MP, this woman has shown she is incompetant since election and I thoroughly hope she doesn’t get re-elected, although that is unlikely as it is a Labour stronghold. I saw her on PMQs once and she was told to sit down because her question was neither a question nor was it about a subject relevant to Central Government.
It struck me that the election could be interesting in East Lothian due to the influx of people from outside the constituency and the redrawing of the boundaries. Since 2001 a lot of people have moved from Edinburgh to East Lothian for various reasons – namely better road links and an abundance of horrible cheap plastic new houses – and that could make a difference to the overall majority, but probably not a very big one as Edinburgh is pretty strongly Labour as well. Interesting to see though.