Orkney Labour party had an opportunity on Monday 17 November for islanders to meet their candidate for the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections, Mike Macleod.

At the event in the St Magnus Centre, Kirkwall, Mike Macleod explained why he was standing and answered a variety of questions put by members of the audience.

Mike is an islander born in the Western Isles and although this summer was the first time he had visited Orkney, his grandmother was from Westray. This will also be the first time Mike will be standing as a candidate although he has many years as an active campaigner for Labour.

Mike believes that it is important to be relevant and to have local connections and for that reason Orkney was the only Constituency he considered standing in. He wants people not only to vote for him as the Labour and Co-operative party candidate in the Orkney Constituency vote, but he is also appealing to LibDem voters to put their cross beside his party in the Regional Vote. He feels that the LibDems and Labour could work well together in the Scottish Parliament.

Readers will recall that the first Scottish Parliament (1999 – 2003) saw a Labour/LibDem Coalition Government formed – which in those days was known as the Scottish Executive with the name changed in 2007 by First Minister Alex Salmond to Scottish Government.

On Assisted Dying, Mike recounted his own personal experience of caring for an elderly relative in their final years, however, taking everything into account about the issue he felt that he would not vote for an Assisted Dying Bill.

One budget should exist for Social and Health Care , Mike believes, as they are interlinked. He spoke about the issues around delayed discharge from hospitals and elderly people not being provided with Care at Home or a place in a residential home. He also thought that Carers should have an increase in pay.

To address Orkney’s housing crisis, Mike put forward his ideas on changing the planning system which in his opinion would solve many of the problems about delivering more homes to people in the islands. He wants to cut the time that planning applications require to get through the system, and also have a scheme to boost the number of planners employed by Local Authorities.

He acknowledged the positive aspects of a national Police service for Scotland but said that the approach needs to be sensible and reflect the differences across the regions. He also wants more money put into Police Scotland and more officers employed.

Relevant at this time of year as our first snows of winter approach was the question on the high prices for electricity householders and businesses in Orkney pay. Mike believes that due to the amount of renewable energy produced in Orkney that through OIC the islands could form its own local energy company. He also looked to the future and was in favour of Scotland having large Data centres constructed.

On the question of Farming and specifically the Scottish Government’s Future Farming scheme, Mike Macleod felt he was unable to provide the answer at the meeting but he promised to get back to the questioner with a written answer.

Elections to the Scottish Parliament take place on Thursday 7 May 2026. Electors have two votes : one for the Constituency of Orkney where they elect an individual to sit as their MSP; and one for the Region of the Highlands and Islands where they vote for a political party. Each political party has a list of candidates from which a MSP will be chosen by them to sit for that Region. It is a form of Proportional Representation aiming to form a Scottish Parliament representative of the electorate.

Fiona Grahame

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