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 ^[5]; ^[6]

External Links

• ^ PR Week, "Labour Candidate Emerges, and Wins", May 20, 2005; the full article can only be acccessed with a subscription

• ^ Stuart Bruce's then website

• ^ Civil Nuclear Industry Scottish CPC Website, cached on Sourcewatch website.

• ^ Paul Hutcheon, "Sleaze Probe into Nuclear Lobbying at Holyrood", Sunday Herald, January 22, 2006

• ^ Civil Nuclear Industry CPG website.

This article uses material from the SourceWatch article on Thomas Docherty