THE Liberal Democrat candidate to fight MP Phil Woolas for his Oldham East and Saddleworth seat has unexpectedly quit — to work in Russia.
Alison Smith — the first woman parliamentary hopeful chosen to contest the seat — stepped down yesterday and held a farewell social last night.
The party says the law graduate from Aberdeen is quitting politics to work in Russia. Privately she told friends she was going to study Russian at Oxford hoping to get work in Russia.
More from the Oldham Chronicle.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Observations of an Expat An Iranian Who’s Who (Tom Arms)
The Independent View: Are mutuals the answer to the water crisis? (People's Commission on the Water Sector)
William Wallace writes: We should talk more about Liberalism (Lord William Wallace)
The future of war has arrived: It’s the Navy (Edward Marsh)
The law has never told you which door to use (Tanya Park)
For International Cat Day: This is Sylvia by Sandy Wilson
From copperworks to distillery
Raven: Phil Daniels and archaeology encounter nuclear waste
The uncanny on the western front in the first world war
Latest voting intention and leadership ratings opinion polls
Democracy, defence policy, health care and more at Lib Dem Autumn Conference
Two more wards become Reform vs Lib Dem in council by-elections
Churchill and Lloyd George: Rivals for Greatness - new podcast series
The Joy of Six 1558
A murder mystery set in Parliament, written by a pioneering MP
Suzanne Fletcher 
Chloe 
Pawel Urbanski 
Jana 
Nigel Jones 
4 Comments
That’s a real shame. Alison was an excellent candidate and I had a good chat with her at Conference about the campaign.. . . I obviously also reminisced about my time living in Aberdeen working with her former boss Malcolm Bruce! Good luck to her!
What a shock her leaving so suddenly. The mention by the press of a personality clash seems quite revealing though. Could this be anything to do with a rather envious little troublemaker who failed to match up to his promises in that area? Wink wink say no more!
Oh, No!
Does this mean we may get that malicious madman from Southport standing for us as an MP again next time?
What happened to him – surely he can’t still be their MPs assistant after what he got up to here, can he?
Er, OK, I haven’t the first clue who you’re talking about but whoever they are “malicious madman” is libelling them – that’s enough thanks, this is an old story, and I’m closing comments on it.