THE former director of the anti-independence campaign Better Together has launched a campaign to become a Labour MP, it has been revealed.
Blair McDougall, who was the top strategist and a prominent spokesperson for the Unionist side in the 2014 independence referendum, is in the running to contest either East Renfrewshire or Paisley and Renfrewshire South at the next election, The Times reports.
The seats are currently held by Kirsten Oswald and Mhairi Black, respectively and Labour strategists reportedly believe they stand a good chance of converting Renfrewshire voters back to the party.
His last foray in electoral politics saw him contest Jim Murphy's former seat of East Renfrewshire in 2017. Labour fell from second place to third.
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He told The Times: “This is just too big a moment of change to sit it out.
“Both these constituencies are there for Labour to take with the right campaign.
“Mhairi Black’s desertion of the SNP and the Tories economic crisis have created so many undecideds.
“It’s up to us as local campaigners to turn them into Labour voters.
“I’ll be asking for support to do that on the basis of my political experience, my history of campaigning for change around the world, and my local roots.”
Despite the ultimate success of the Better Together campaign, it was beset with internal rows about the negative tone McDougall frequently adopted – leading to the campaign being dubbed “Project Fear”.
One insider at the time told The Huffington Post: “The truth of the matter is that we couldn't have designed a worse f****ng campaign.”
McDougall writes the political newsletter Notes on Nationalism and in its most recent edition set out his “frustration” with Labour leader Keir Starmer’s announcement the party would keep the Tories’ draconian two-child cap on benefits if they win the next election.
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