CHRIS WATT and DAMIEN HENDERSON Margaret Curran, Labour's candidate in the Glasgow East by-election, was yesterday forced to clarify a claim she had lived in the east end "all my life" after it emerged she has lived in an affluent part of the south side of the city for the past 20 years.
The Glasgow Baillieston MSP angrily denied allegations that she had misled voters, although an aide later conceded she may have made a "slip of the tongue".
Ms Curran is not the only candidate to stay outwith the Glasgow East boundaries: at the close of entries to the Electoral Office at Glasgow City Council yesterday, it emerged that, of the mainstream candidates, only one - the SNP's John Mason - actually lives there.
Ian Robertson, the LibDem candidate, pledged yesterday to move into the area - where he born and raised - if returned as an MP, while the Conservative party's Davena Rankin stays in the west end.
Faced with questions from The Herald yesterday over whether she had made a misleading statement, Ms Curran angrily refused to retract her comments.
During her first public outing as an official candidate in Shettleston on Tuesday, Ms Curran said: "I have worked in the east end all my life. I have lived in the east end all my life." However, she claimed that this meant she had "either" lived or worked in the east end, where she was born and raised, and worked as a welfare rights worker and community worker, and where she now serves as MSP.
Ms Curran also described her move to a more prosperous area an example of "aspiration", adding that she was bringing those values back to the east end constituency.
She said: "I think I'm quite typical of the east end of Glasgow, where a lot of people, a lot of working class people, did very well for their kids ... I had the privilege of going to university, as did my husband, and we then bought our own house. That was aspirational on the part of our families - that's very typical in the east end."
Ms Curran attributed her reason for staying away from the constituency to "force of circumstances", saying: "My kids went to school at a certain primary and I kept them there. There's no issue."
The MSP has lived in the south side of Glasgow for at least 19 years. In 2001, she bought a property in Newlands, for £350,000 with her husband, Rab Murray, a former depute social work head at Glasgow City Council who is originally from Easterhouse. Before that, the couple lived in Shawlands since 1989, having moved from Pollokshields, also on the south side.
An aide to Ms Curran conceded later that she may have made a "slip of the tongue" in claiming to have lived in the east end all her life. "Her address is a matter of public record. She made that comment in a speech given without notes and she may have made a slip of the tongue. The point is she has lived or worked in the east end for pretty much all her adult life."
Her comments were seized upon by opponents, with Mr Robertson saying: "I think it's very important for an elected member to live in the area that he or she represents."
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