‘That All Sounds Lovely’, Former SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Shiekh has been barred from standing as a nationalist candidate in the SNP, no room at Brussels for ‘Livid’ Tasmina as Nicola Sturgeon’s crew slam the door shut on her European Dreams, as an actress you would have thought she could have improvised a story on being found guilty of professional misconduct were she was the heroine, but alas no!

Dear All

Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, the former SNP MP who co-hosts The Alex Salmond Show has been barred from standing as a nationalist candidate. When you look at this show, there are two distinct phases apparent in my mind, pre trouble, and post trouble, for both of those presenters. In the case of Alex Salmond, his troubles are acute, while Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh’s problems are more chronic in nature. Ms. Ahmed-Sheikh doing her piece to camera on RT looks and sounds increasingly like a woman who could be selling vacuum cleaners on Ideal World!

Ms. Shiekh hitched her star to the wagon of Alex Salmond quite early.  

Away back in 2014, I was campaigning against Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh online as she toured around Glasgow with a group trying to get elected. The little support group as I recalled where hanging around Glasgow South West, basically places like Darnley. This was also the year of the Scottish independence referendum, the Salmond era was at its high, but was also to, spectacularly to fall as events unfolded. The SNP’s ‘summer offensive’ rolled on like the Germans did in Operation Barbarossa, the political fighting was fierce with Nationalists targeting women from Better Together while the referendum and the election ran parallel for a time.

Hate filled the air, but when the smoke cleared in the EU election, the ‘summer offensive’ to get three seats was to turn out to be a disaster, the SNP only returned two MEPs and the nasty campaign by the SNP was turned into a race thing. This election also saw David Coburn of Ukip nip in and get that third seat so prized by Tasmina and the SNP.

It was a night of joy and laughter, well laughter from me at any rate.

In the aftermath of being rejected, Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh was to win the seat of Ochil & Perthshire South in 2015, but in two short years, the snap election saw her punted down the road, losing to a Conservative candidate.

It was a night of joy and laughter, well laughter from me at any rate.

Since losing the seat of Ochil & Perthshire South in 2017, she has been found guilty of professional misconduct and fined £3,000 over her handling of a trust fund at a law firm where she was previously a partner. Now, that the SNP is on the political slide, Nicola Sturgeon can’t afford to have Tasmina Ahmed-Shiekh as a Euro Candidate! And with elections for Holyrood and Westminster so time away and Sturgeon looking for the exit, Tasmina could be back! Of course to cement her position it would be helpful if Alex Salmond regained the leadership.

You have to wonder what was going through Tasmina’s mind when she thought that standing was a good idea, when patently ‘the baggage’ was a major problem. According to sources it was said that she was “livid” after her initial vetting application was put on the back burner, destroying her bid to be selected for the May 23 elections.

Having sucked up to the leadership in my opinion, maybe she thought that she had a pass, but it seems that Nicola Sturgeon party thought otherwise. During an internal appeal hearing on Thursday, Ms Ahmed-Sheikh is said to have given a passionate defence of her suitability for elected office.

But let’s face it, when your face doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit!

As I previously blogged there are two courts in the SNP, the Court of King Alex and the Court of Queen Nicola. Tasmina was in the wrong court, plus her being on RT as a presenter for Alex Salmond doesn’t play well. In politics, it helps to have ‘allies’, in the case of Tasmina, it appears that Joanna Cherry, an SNP MP and an ally of Salmond, raised concerns about the vetting process at a meeting of the party’s ruling national executive.

We can expect more from the Court of King Alex in future as the SNP spilt into two factions. No surprised that Ahmed-Sheikh’s appeal was dismissed and the party ruled that she should not be on the approved list of potential candidates.

Removed from the approved list of potential candidates is what you should focus on here, because unless there is a power shift, it is doubtful that Holyrood or Westminster will ever be available to her again. Less than two years ago she was part of the SNP front bench at Westminster, not that this is a thing.

It is understood that the ‘main reason’ for the rejection of Ms Ahmed-Sheikh was that she was fined £3,000 in January after being found guilty by a tribunal of professional misconduct.

Question is, how can she in future rewrite this piece of history to be the heroine?

Finally, if insult to injury is worth noting in this case, the SNP list of European candidates are;

Alyn Smith, an angry wee man who lost badly to me on the Gordon Brewer Radio Show.

Former MSPs Aileen McLeod and Christian Allard, one is past it and the other never had it.

Margaret Ferrier, the former MP, a complete banger of the highest order.

Heather Anderson, a councillor who I have never heard of.

Alex Kerr, a party activist.

Finally, as Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh looks and laments at this list and the woefully and dreadful lack of talent, she might feel quite angry which is rather understandable. This group doesn’t represent choice or quality which is sorely needed at the EU Parliament. Given the state of politics, it will probably be two that get elected if the election goes ahead in May. Getting three is a bit of a stretch but do keep a lookout for Tasmina on the campaign trial just in case Nicola Sturgeon throws her a Westminster biscuit!

Yours sincerely

George Laird

The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University