JOHN MCALLION was formally unveiled as the Scottish Socialist Party’s candidate for the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election last night.

The former Labour MSP for Dundee East promptly launched a stinging attack on his former colleagues, who, he said were running scared of voters.

He said, “The task I face is simple.

“It is to get across to voters in Dunfermline and West Fife the SSP’s political message on a range of local and national issues and to try to persuade as many of them as I possibly can to vote for the kind of Scotland that the SSP stands for— socialist, independent, democratic and republican.”

Mr McAllion said Labour were so concerned about the outcome of the by- election they had gone for the earliest date possible.

“They decided to get this by-election over as quickly as they possibly could in the minimum time required by electoral law and with the minimum risk to their own electoral self-interest.”

Turning to the Lexmark closure he said, “Labour want to pass off Lexmark’s sacking of 700 workers almost as an act of God, something that no government could have done anything about.

“Blair told the Commons yesterday that it was a “cruel deception” to pretend that governments can prevent job losses.

“What he didn’t tell them was that his government champions liberalisation and market access for European and US companies around the world that makes it possible for companies like Lexmark to switch production to lower-cost centres of production in poor countries where the workers are ruthlessly exploited by those same companies.

“These jobs are exiting Scotland because it is the policy of HM New Labour Government in Westminster that they should be able to do so.”

Mr McAllion pledged to fight to retain services at Queen Margaret Hospital and accused Labour of playground politics over its handling of the Forth Road Bridge tolls issue.

Mr McAllion, who was on the far left of the Labour Party, lost his seat to the SNP in the 2003 Holyrood election.