Labour choose ex-SNP member to stand against Joanna Cherry in Edinburgh South West

New candidate says SNP is "less progressive" than it claims

Sophie Cooke says climate change has to be the top policy priority

LABOUR has chosen a novelist and former SNP member as its new candidate to stand against Joanna Cherry.

Sophie Cooke joined the Nationalists in the wake of the 2014 independence referendum but quit after what she called the party’s failures in health and education policy.

The previous Labour candidate for Edinburgh South West, Frances Hoole, was forced to stand down after she posted a photo-shopped image of herself and Ms Cherry with the caption “Bang! And the terf is gone”.

Ms Cooke, who lives in Parkhead, said she had switched to Labour in 2017. “I decided to leave the SNP following the failures in education and health policy, and a realisation that the party was less progressive than it claimed - refusing to back Scottish Labour’s proposals for an increase in income tax to protect public services, before belatedly adopting the policy many months later.

“I still have a lot of admiration for some aspects of SNP policy – but it’s not the best party for Scotland, in my opinion. As Labour shifted back to its old position on the left under Jeremy Corbyn, I realised I had a better place to call political home.”

She said halting climate change had to be the top policy priority.

And she supports a “People’s Vote” on Brexit. “We need to be properly informed: no hype or hysteria. Just facts and a calm discussion.”