Callum Laidlaw is the councillor for Craigmillar and Portobello and is also standing in the General Election as Conservative candidate for Edinburgh South West.
He told us why he is standing. Mr Laidlaw said : “I’m standing because I think it’s time that Parliament moved on, focused on what people I’m speaking to want to focus on which are priorities like education, health care, safer streets.
“I think it’s been an impasse in Parliament, an impasse both at Holyrood and Westminster, and I think it’s time for a change. I’m councillor for the Portobello Craigmillar ward, I’m the Conservative group’s education spokesperson, and outside my political career I’ve worked in corporate communications for about 12 years.
“After graduating, I was in London for a few years and then came back to Edinburgh to campaign for Better Together in the 2014 referendum and then got more involved in politics in Scotland. I grew up and was born and raised in Edinburgh and it’s it’s nice to be home.
“Local issues that come up on the doors – infrastructures are huge. There are huge traffic pressures in Edinburgh South West roads coming into the city. I think we need to look at that. Certainly the suburban rail infrastructure needs to improve – there are only two trains an hour during peak rush hour. So I’d like to see that improved.
“I fought to keep the South West schools open during that consultation – that comes up although clearly it’s a devolved matter. But funding coming through and filtering into our schools is important to a lot of people.
“And I think we have a significant presence of the armed forces in Edinburgh South West and the commitment of the UK Government to funding the armed forces and keeping that presence there. That certainly comes up on the doors too.
“It’s the constituency in Scotland with the greatest number of fast growing small businesses. I think all businesses large and small, want a degree of certainty as to what’s going on. So I’m hearing a lot of people saying that they want to move on from the debate around independence, they want to move on from Brexit. They want some certainty as to what’s happening so businesses can invest and jobs can be created.”
Edinburgh South West candidates 2019
BALLANTINE, David Craig – Brexit Party
BROWN, Mev – Social Democratic Party Scotland
CHERRY, Joanna Catherine – Scottish National Party (SNP)
COOKE, Sophie – Scottish Labour Party
INGLIS, Tom – Scottish Liberal Democrats
LAIDLAW, Callum Arron – Scottish Conservative and Unionist
PARKER, Ben – Scottish Green Party
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