Tom Gordon
Scottish Political Editor
ELECTION loser Danny Alexander is hoping to make a political comeback, it has emerged.
The former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, who lost his Highlands seat to the SNP despite spending £50,000 on his campaign, is contemplating a return to Westminster.
Alexander, 43, recently rejected a peerage and accepted a knighthood instead.
Now it has emerged that ‘Sir Danny’ steered clear of the House of Lords to allow a return to the Commons - it is understood he has no desire to try Holyrood.
Asked about Alexander’s plans last week, Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie said: “He’s not ruled out coming back to politics, but he hasn’t mentioned coming to Holyrood. He’s not thinking about Holyrood. But he’s not ruling coming back [into politics] in the future.”
Alexander, the highest ranking LibDem politician in Scotland until his defeat, blew a small fortune in the failed defence of his Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency.
His campaign cost £49,908, according to his official spending return, the biggest outlay of any candidate in Scotland, and more than double the £21,783 spent by the SNP’s Drew Hendry.
Despite the financial advantage, Alexander’s 8,675-vote majority collapsed and the SNP won with a majority of 10,809 on a 20.4 per cent swing.
It later emerged that one of Alexander’s donors was a high-level Conservative supporter.
Investment banker Jitesh Gadhia, a member of David Cameron’s £50,000-a-year Leader’s Club, gave Alexander £1000 in February.
Hendry said: “I wish Danny Alexander well in whatever the future holds for him – however, his apparent fear of standing for the LibDems in next year’s Scottish Parliamentary elections is hardly surprising given his party lost 10 out 11 of their seats in Scotland to the SNP in May.”
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