Isles MP Angus MacNeil has said that politics is different now as the independent candidate, a relatively unknown too, beat all the main parties in the Rochdale by-election only coming second to the phenomenon that is George Galloway.
Commenting Na h-Eileanan an Iar MP Angus MacNeil said:
“Having just spent 6 months as an independent MP we can see from Rochdale that the big political parties are a failed political class.Â
“The Conservatives have wrecked the economy, Labour have much the same economic plans and have let people down on Gaza with their silence and invisibility.Â
“The SNP as we know locally have let people down with the Highly Protected Marine Areas, failed on the Gender Recognition and the Deposit Return Scheme.
“Rochdale shows that people are looking for a difference in politics, somebody who is on their side.Â
“I have nothing to fear from the big political parties and islanders don’t need the big political parties either.Â
“There is another way to have your voice heard, Rochdale shows that.
“I have been an independent MP for six months now.
“My constituents will not have noticed any difference as I have continued to assist with hundreds of individual constituency cases each month and represent the islands strongly in the House of Commons.Â
“My workload is the same.
“In a situation where Labour have a big majority, this means Labour MPs are going to be weak, only people who will have genuine voices in the next parliament will be independent voices.
“As an independent MP, I am on the side of islanders and put the islands at the forefront of all that I do without any hindrance of party politics.”