Glasgow East by-election: Fuel bills and the Old Bill as Taggart actor campaigns for Labour

CRIME and rising fuel bills dominated the Glasgow East by-election campaign today - along with a celebrity endorsement for Labour.

TV cop John Michie, who plays DI Robbie Ross in Taggart, joined Labour's Margaret Curran to highlight crime and anti-social behaviour.

Meanwhile the SNP's John Mason wrote to Chancellor Alistair Darling with an eight-point plan to fight fuel poverty.

The plan includes a mandatory minimum social tariff for all energy firms, better information-swapping between the Department of Work and Pensions and energy firms to help the vulnerable, a limit on pre-payment meter charges, and the creation of a Scottish oil fund.

Labour has seized on comments in a BBC Newsnight Scotland interview in which Mr Mason agreed he took a "hard line" on independence, but said this went hand-in-hand with a desire to help the less well-off.

Asked if he was hard-liner on independence, he replied: "The whole SNP wants independence, there's no question about that – I think we all take a hard line."

Labour minister David Cairns said: "Councillor Mason has finally let the cat out of the bag. He has admitted what we knew all along – he is a hard-line Nationalist who sees his role at Westminster to bring about independence."

In other electioneering activity the Scottish Greens, who are fielding candidate Dr Eileen Duke, launched their Glasgow East campaign, visiting a team who set up two community-owned wind turbines in the area.

Liberal Democrat Tavish Scott was scheduled to take part in campaigning in Glasgow East this afternoon after launching his party leadership campaign in Inverness in the morning.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith again returned to Easterhouse in aid of the Tory campaign to highlight an alcohol awareness project.

The visit to Labour's campaign by Taggart's John Michie was to highlight community issues and safer streets.

Ms Curran said: "People in the east end are telling me they want more done to tackle knife crime, clean up the streets, and deal with the thugs and neds who make too many lives a misery.

"I'm banging heads together making sure that everyone is working together on this.

"Councillor Mason, my hard-line Nationalist opponent, is obsessed by independence and doesn't care about issues like anti-social behaviour."

Mr Michie said: "I'm delighted to be joining Margaret on the campaign trail.

"I know from my own experience that Labour has made a real difference to Glasgow but we need tough fighters like her in Westminster to make sure that progress continues."

Launching his eight-point plan for tackling fuel poverty, Mr Mason said the SNP administration in Holyrood had already taken some action.

But its powers were limited without full independence, and immediate action was needed by Westminster.

"We have already seen gas and electricity price increases of some 15% this year with forecasts of further rises of as much as 40% to come," he said.

"The rate of fuel poverty is three times as high in Scotland as south of the border.

"Growing numbers of people struggling to pay soaring energy bills amid energy plenty is totally unacceptable in 21st century Glasgow and Scotland, and at a time when the Treasury is being propped up by billions of pounds of extra revenue from Scottish oil."

Nationalists seized on the disclosure that ministers including deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman have been taking part in the campaign away from the media spotlight.

SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson said: "First Labour are so short of activists they are ordering MPs from outwith Scotland to prop up their campaign, now they are too embarrassed to let anyone see them.

"This is a Labour Party and a Labour candidate so embarrassed by its own Government it doesn't want anyone in Glasgow East to know they are here."

But David Cairns said: "Labour ministers have been out on the doorsteps listening to local residents, discussing their views and hearing their concerns.

"Residents are the people who really matter and it is extraordinary that the SNP don't want to engage with them."

Launching the Green campaign Dr Duke said that in an "energy-generating democracy", local communities could generate energy and sell the surplus to the grid.

"The other parties have nothing to offer on this issue," she said.

"The SNP just obsess over who owns our dwindling oil supplies, which would have no effect at all on fuel bills.

"At the same time Gordon Brown goes to Saudi Arabia to plead for more oil, ignoring the clean energy opportunities on his doorstep."