EXCLUSIVE: The MP for East Kilbride thanked Joe Fagan for standing by her after she voluntarily suspended her Labour membership.
Joani Reid has admitted facing a “rough few months” after her husband was arrested on suspicion of spying for China.
The MP for East Kilbride chose to voluntarily suspend her Labour membership in March after David Taylor was charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service.
Reid, who was never accused of wrongdoing, was readmitted to the party last month following an internal investigation.
She thanked Scottish Labour leadership hopeful Joe Fagan for standing by her during the ordeal.
“I’ve had a rough few months, and politics can go quiet around you when that happens,” she said in a column for the Record.
“But not Joe. He stood by me when there was nothing in it for him. Because he thought it was the right thing to do. That tells me something about his character. He is a decent man. And a kind man.”
Reid is now backing Fagan, a South Scotland MSP elected for the first time in May, to succeed Anas Sarwar as the next Scottish Labour leader.
The MP said: “People hear a great deal from the Scottish political class about language, identity and symbolism. They hear far less that convinces them Scottish Labour understands their lives, respects their values or is interested in where they live.
“Joe understands that because he has never been absorbed into the Holyrood bubble. His politics were formed in East Kilbride and local government. He listens properly, knows his own mind and is comfortable with people who don’t spend their lives talking about politics.
“Local government strips away much of the political theatre, and there is little glamour involved. A care package arrives or somebody goes without. A family gets the keys or stays in temporary accommodation. Folk know who is responsible when something goes wrong, and they’ll tell you between the tills and the car park.
“He takes the same approach to the North Sea. He is the first candidate to say he will fight for Rosebank and Jackdaw until the UK Government approves them. I agree with him, and I would sooner say it now than after more jobs are lost.
“He’ll have more to say on policy in the coming weeks. What I already know is that he understands what Labour should stand for and what it should be doing.”
Taylor was arrested in London in March and has since been released on bail.
Matthew Aplin, 43, and Steve Jones, 68, have also been bailed after being arrested in Wales.
Counter-terrorism police have searched properties where the men were arrested as well as others in Cardiff, East Kilbride and London.
Following Taylor’s arrest, Reid aid she had never been to China, nor spoken on any China-related matters in the House of Commons.
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