TWO of the women who are fighting for your votes in the General Election in May have exchanged verbal blows over canvassing techniques, with Patricia Gibson claiming Labour have been using ‘tele-marketing’ to get to potential voters.  Mrs Gibson, the SNP candidate for North Ayrshire and Arran, hit out at incumbent MP Katy Clark saying she was astonished to be contacted by SNP members who have been telephone canvassed by a London based tele-marketing company on behalf of the Labour Party.

She said: “With almost 2,000 SNP members in the constituency it didn’t take long for members to get in touch to say that Labour is telephone canvassing Ardrossan.

“It seems that Labour is so hard up for local activists, they are apparently using a tele-marketing company based in London.

“One would have thought they might at least have spent their money in Scotland!” “We in the SNP will focus our efforts on the doorsteps, with local members who understand the area and the issues here in Ayrshire canvassing in their own communities.

“If Labour wants to spend its money in London, surely it should be using those resources to win marginal seats there?

"One has to wonder at Labour’s priorities which seem to be about holding back the SNP, rather than taking on the Tories in England.

But Katy Clark’s election agent Martyn Cook has hit back at the claims saying that he is ‘so bored with the SNP’.

Mr Cook said: “The suggestion that Katy has paid for a London based tele-marketing firm to canvass for her are categorically untrue.  “Before making such false accusations Mrs Gibson should check her facts.   “What is true is that socialists, trade unionists and anti-austerity activists from various parts of the UK, including Scotland, England and Wales have offered to help Katy’s campaign and are doing a bit of telephone canvassing for her on a voluntary basis, alongside local activists.   “This is perfectly normal in political campaigns.” Gavin Sibthorpe, a Welsh Unite trade union activist who was calling on behalf of Katy’s campaign said: “I volunteered to call on behalf of Katy as I can’t make it up to North Ayrshire due to work, but wanted to help Katy’s campaign.   “Katy has done brilliant work for the trade unions and campaigned to improve employment rights, introduce a higher living wage and pressed for job creation across the country.  “I believe that one of the strengths in the Labour movement is that we can support each other regardless of nationality and that solidarity transcends borders, and I will continue to campaign in any way I can to ensure that Katy is re-elected in May.” Pete Wilsman, an English Labour Party member who has also been calling, added: “I’ve been a Labour Party member for 45 years, and am a former member of the National Executive.

"Katy has been a close friend of mine for 20 years and I will continue to phone on behalf of Katy as she represents the very best in our movement, and has stuck by her principles since she was elected in 2005.   “I believe it would be a terrible loss to our cause if we lost an MP like Katy, who can bring people from across the UK together to help oppose the Tory’s politics of austerity, and it is vital that we get her re-elected along with a Labour Government to replace the Tories.”