Lawyer is new north Labour hope

John McKendrick selected from three candidates at Drumnadrochit meeting

By neil macphail

Published:

John McKendrick: ‘integrity’

The Ross Skye and Lochaber Constituency Labour Party has selected lawyer John McKendrick as their prospective parliamentary candidate for the forthcoming Westminster election.

Mr McKendrick, who lives in Bath Street, Glasgow, saw off competition from two other candidates in a good-humoured, well-attended party meeting in Drumnadrochit.

The local party members said they were impressed with Mr McKendrick’s experience of and commitment to campaigning for Labour values in the Highlands, and particularly his campaign for the 2007 Holyrood election in the constituency of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.

Mr McKendrick said: “I am delighted to have been selected and look forward to the challenge of winning votes for the Labour Party.

“It makes me immensely proud to have been given the opportunity to represent those people who vote for the Labour Party in this part of Scotland; their votes mean very much to the party and I hope to be able to convey the core Labour messages to the entire constituency during the next months.

“All political parties have been shaken by the expenses scandal, and rightly so. It is time to place integrity back into the political system.

“My campaign will focus hard on education, youth employment and social mobility, the keys to economic and social success in northern Scotland.”

Mr McKendrick grew up in the countryside in Stirling-shire, went to school in Glasgow and studied at the London School of Economics and Oxford before qualifying as an advocate in Edinburgh and a barrister in London.

He has devoted his professional life to representing families, parents, schools and local authorities in the fields of education and community care provision, tackling a variety of problems from special educational needs to bullying and from discipline to disabilities.

He is recognised as a leading lawyer in the fields of human rights, civil liberties, public and education law.

He has also worked and lived for several years in Central America, in Panama City.