Labour alerts voters to double jeopardy of 'the two Currans'

LABOUR campaigners were yesterday accused of panicking about the result of the Glasgow East by-election after it emerged that they had begun a strategy to cope with possible confusion over candidate names.

As polling day draws closer, party strategists on all sides are expecting a low turn-out for the crucial by-election, making a tight result more likely in what was a safe Labour seat with a majority of 13,500.

This has caused concerns in the Labour camp that confusion between their candidate Margaret Curran and Scottish Socialist Party candidate Frances Curran could prove crucial.

The SSP candidate appears ahead of Margaret Curran on the ballot paper because her forename starts with a letter that appears first in the alphabet.

There is also a worry over a repeat of the 2007 election fiasco where confusion about ballot papers led to many being voided. In that election, voters in Glasgow East's Scottish Parliament constituencies were among those with the most void papers.

As a result, Margaret Curran's campaign team has decided to leave nothing to chance.

All the leaflets the party is now producing carry a mock picture of a ballot paper, showing the two Currans with a cross by the one Labour want voters to support.

Activists have also been told to emphasise the point to voters when they go around knocking doors.

A campaign insider told The Scotsman: "We are taking unusual measures to tackle this problem. It's not unheard of in elections, but obviously we want to leave nothing to chance. For instance, Malcolm Chisholm had to run against another Chisholm in a recent election."

He added: "We expect Margaret to win, but the worst thing to do is take the voters for granted, and we know we are in a fight."

The SNP have said that the fact Labour are taking the "two Currans" issue so seriously shows that they are afraid of losing to the Nationalists' candidate John Mason.

"Clearly, we have made inroads in Glasgow East and Labour are panicking," a spokeswoman said.

"Labour are so concerned about losing around 50 votes because of a confusion over candidate names that they are going to these extraordinary lengths. That shows precisely how close this by-election is and that we can win it."

Frances Curran, a former MSP, said she has already been mistaken for Margaret Curran but she is adamant that she can do well on her own, without benefiting from mistaken identity.

She has also fiercely denied suggestions that she was put forward as a candidate because of her name.

"I don't want Margaret Curran's reputation for selling out. I kept my principles, she took the perks," she said.

The constituency should, in theory, be a good target for the far Left SSP.

However, in 2005, the first time this constituency was contested in this form, the SSP secured just 1,079 votes, or 3.5 per cent of the total, although this was considerably less than it got in the area in 2001.

Since then, the party has split with the creation of Solidarity, following the fall-out from the court case involving the former SSP leader, Tommy Sheridan.

Solidarity has also put up a candidate for the by-election, Tricia McLeish.

Knife-crime plea to candidates

A MOTHER whose son was knifed to death made an emotional plea to the main candidates in the Glasgow East by-election last night for tougher measures to fight knife crime.

Christine Halley, whose 19-year-old son, Stuart Naillie, was killed in Easterhouse last August, appealed for the politicians to support mandatory prison sentences for knife possession. But all four candidates present at a debate for BBC's Newsnight Scotland said they were unwilling to impose Draconian measures.

This is despite a call last week from Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, for there to be a presumption of jail or a hefty community service punishment in order to tackle the spate of teenage knife killings over the past year.

John Mason, the SNP candidate, said he was not sure that prisons would be able to cope if every knife-carrier was sent to jail, a point with which Liberal Democrat candidate, Ian Robertson, agreed. Davena Rankin, the Tory candidate, said there should be a "presumption" of imprisonment but did not want to "bind judges' hands".

Margaret Curran, the Labour candidate, said people who committed a crime while on bail, or repeat offenders, should be jailed, and she was "inclined" to support mandatory sentences for possession.

• A youth in his late teens was stabbed to death in south Lambeth, south London, last night.

Did Labour steal Tories' moves?

LABOUR yesterday denied it was running out of ideas after appearing to steal a photocall concept from the Conservatives.

Margaret Curran, the Labour candidate, joined a dancing and yoga class for a photocall yesterday as she continued her fight to hold Glasgow East for Labour.

But the picture had distinct similarities to one organised on Wednesday involving the Conservative candidate, Davena Rankin, and Scottish party leader Annabel Goldie.

It would not be the first time Labour was accused of stealing ideas from the Tories. In his last Budget, the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, was said to have taken all the main proposals from shadow chancellor George Osborne's conference speech.

Labour said other parties were doing the same photocalls as itself at other times. "There's only a limited number of things you can do on a campaign and venues you can go to, so there's always going to be some cross-over between us all," a spokesman said.

Both photocalls were meant to highlight the parties' drives to encourage fitness in a constituency with one of the worst health records in Britain.