Comedy club boss selected by the SNP

The boss of the Stand comedy clubs will be fighting the next election for the SNP.

Tommy Sheppard learned today that he has been selected to contest the seat of Edinburgh East in May’s general election.

He tweeted: ‘Just heard from SNP HQ that I am the candidate for @eastsnp. My thanks to all those who voted for me - and to my fellow nominees. Let’s win.’

Edinburgh East, is held by Labour’s Sheila Gilmore with an apparently healthy majority of 9,181. However the area recorded the biggest Yes vote in the city in the independence referendum – and the equivalent Holyrood seat has been held by the SNP since 2007.

Sheppard – who also runs the Glasgow comedy festival – has a long political history with Labour. He is a former Scottish Labour deputy general secretary, former Labour councillor in Hackney in London, and stood for Labour in the safe Tory seat of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, in the 1992 election.

When he announced that he wanted to become an MP, Sheppard said: ‘I think there’s a real mood for change in the country and in order to achieve that we need a big shake-up in Westminster.’

Published: 27 Jan 2015