Thomas Docherty

In early 2005, Docherty was part of an "all-PR" shortlist to become Labour candidate for the constituency of Copeland, which includes BNFL's Sellafield plant. The constituency was previously held by Jack Cunningham, a longstanding advocate of nuclear power. The other people on the shortlist were [1]:

• Jamie Reed, at the time a BNFL press officer,
• Stuart Bruce of Bruce Marshall Associates, and
• Tim Walker, a Bell Pottinger board director and former special adviser to Cunningham.

Reed was selected, and held the seat for Labour. Reporting the story shortly after the election, PR Week wryly observed: "What this can mean for the re-elected Labour government's commitment to pump billions into a raft of new nuclear power stations, we couldn't possibly say." [2]

However another of the PR men on the shortlist, Stuart Bruce, seemed quite clear about the significance of Reed's electoral success. A few days after the election, he wrote: "One of the challenges facing Jamie will be to help push the government into an essential replacement programme for our nuclear power stations. Good luck." [3]

Civil Nuclear Industry Scottish CPG role

Docherty used to represent the UKAEA on the Scottish Parliament's Civil Nuclear Industry CPG, according to the CPG's website [4].

After the Scottish Sunday Herald started researching the links between the CPG and lobbyists, Docherty's name was removed from the site [7 (http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/msp/crossPartyGroups/groups/cpg-cni.htm].

This article uses material from the SourceWatch article on Thomas Docherty

.