Labour vs labour: MSP hopeful misses own fundraiser with Chancellor as lambing season calls

Labour’s Donald MacKinnon was unable to attend the event in London with the Chancellor because of preparations for the upcoming lambing season.

The 30-year-old, who is standing in the Western Isles in May, said he was “disappointed” not to make the event but that the scanning of the ewes was “too important to miss”.

The central London event was a joint fundraiser with Labour’s Inverclyde candidate Francesca Brennan.

It contained speeches from Ms Reeves and Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden.

Mr MacKinnon said: “It's an annual pregnancy scanning of the ewes this week. So every year we get a scanner comes up from the mainland, and we found out how many lambs the sheep are having.

“I couldn’t miss it because I had to go to the moor and gather the sheep to be ready for that.

“So I wasn’t able to make the fundraiser.”

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The crofter, who owns roughly 30 sheep, continued: “I was disappointed I couldn’t make it down. It would have been great to have a chat with Rachel. But I couldn’t get out of this job. It was too important to miss, unfortunately.”

Mr MacKinnon - who also manages a community estate and works as a fireman - will have to balance his bid to become an MSP with the upcoming lambing season.

He said: “The day the short campaign starts on March 26, that's the day we're due to start lambing. We’ll be lambing for three weeks this year. It’ll be a busy time to juggle everything.

“I’ll be balancing the two for lambing season, and then I’ll be straight back into the campaign.

“But the other side of the campaign here is that the constituency is massive, 160 miles long.

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“This weekend I’m heading down to Barra. That’s two ferry journeys, four causeways. It’s a lot of effort to get from one end of the constituency to the other.

“So there’s a lot involved in being a candidate in this seat.”

Mr MacKinnon said he will continue crofting if he is elected: “I wouldn’t like to give up having a few sheep, but I’m sure that’ll be a whole other juggle.

“It’s really important to keep that connection to the place and the people and the community that you get through keeping sheep.

“It’s something that a lot of my, hopefully, future constituents are also doing in their spare time. I see it as an important thing to carry on doing.”

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Mr MacKinnon is running against the SNP’s Alasdair Allan for the Western Isles seat.

Mr Allan, who has served in three different Scottish Government ministerial roles, has represented the constituency since 2007.

Before that, the seat was held by Labour’s Alasdair Morisson.

The Westminster constituency was won by Labour’s Torcuil Crichton in 2024.

It had previously been held by Angus MacNeil from 2005. Mr MacNeil was in the SNP but was expelled in 2023 so stood as an independent.