Unholy Alliance to be tested in North Lanarkshire.

A intriguing story drom Scotlamd as emerges as Conservative candidate who won a council seat in May has refused to take up the job, STV News has learned.

Sandy Thornton was elected to serve on North Lanarkshire Council after he won a seat in the Fortissat ward.

Following May's election, Mr Thornton has declined to sign the official paperwork needed to become a councillor.

STV News understands Mr Thornton did not attend the election count or even have his official council photograph taken.

It is believed Mr Thorton was a paper candidate and not expected to win.

A by-election will now be held on September 7. The local poll is estimated to cost taxpayers around £25,000.

Fortissat - 4 seats
Party		Candidate	% 1st Pref	Count 1	Count 2	Count 3	Count 4	Count 5	Count 6
	Labour	Martin McCulloch	29.29	1,477
	SNP	Thomas Cochrane (incumbent)	20.15	1,016
	Conservative	Sandy Thornton†	13.29	670	678	678	691	948	1,121
	A Better Britain – Unionist Party	Jeffrey McDonald	11.08	559	574	574	591
	Independent	Charlie Cefferty (incumbent)	10.09	509	527	527	661	754
	SNP	Mags Murphy	8.9	449	469	475
	Labour	Kenneth Stevenson	7.2	363	715	715	806	891	1,117
Electorate: 12,051   Valid: 5,043   Spoilt: 139   Quota: 1,009   Turnout: 5,182 (43.0%)

The Council seems to be a prime example of the Unholy Unionist Alliamce  between the Lanour Party and the Tories as the election saw the Scottish National Party overtake Labour as the largest party on the council. Despite victory for the SNP, North Lanarkshire is now a Labour/Tory council, after Labour leader Jim Logue was appointed Leader of the Council with the support of the ten-strong Conservative group, at the first meeting on 18 May after a deal between the two parties, which saw the Tory leader appointed as convener of the Audit & Scrutiny committee

So although it is difficult to predict a Byelection  which is based on a Multi member seat elected by the Single Transferable Vote (STV). Given the fact that the lead Labour Candidate was welll ahead on the First Preference vote (on a generally bad night for the party) this should see a Labour win.

Will the Tories put up another paper candidate?  what will the reaction of the electors particularity Labour voters be to Labour 's alliance with the Tories?

This may well see a Unionist/Nationalist battle in which the Unholy Aliance  will be exposed for what it is.

Indeed we may well see the future of Scottish Politics laid bare, where this leaves Labour in Scotland , will be interesting , How are the Corbyn supporters going to explain that their Scottish Branch are in the pockets of Ruth Davidson's Scottish Tories?


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