ONE of the LibDems’ top Scottish Parliament election candidates has been running her campaign from her home hundreds of miles away in London, it has emerged.

Katy Gordon is the party’s number one list candidate in West Scotland, as well as running for the constituency seat in Clydebank and Milngavie.

On her website, she claims to have made the west of Scotland “her home for the past 22 years” and lists Bearsden as her location on Facebook. She was also introduced as being from East Dunbartonshire at the LibDem conference last year.

However, The National has learned that Gordon has in fact been living in London for several years.

READ MORE: Scottish Tory leaflet says SNP majority at May vote WILL result in indyref2

Although she has a flat in Scotland, the candidate has not set foot in the country since October.

Gordon – who was Jo Swinson’s campaign manager during the 2015, 2017 and 2019 General Elections – is a careers guidance professional by trade. She has lived in London since joining the Careers Group, based at Goldsmiths, University of London, in July 2017.

Despite this, she was appointed by Willie Rennie in 2019 to a senior position within the LibDems – economy and fair work spokesperson.

The party confirmed that Gordon has been canvassing voters remotely from London since October. But it declined to comment on why Rennie appointed someone who lived hundreds of miles away to such a key role.

A Scottish LibDem spokesperson told The National: “After an impressive almost 30-year career working in careers support and higher education in Scotland, Katy was recruited to lead a major program at Goldsmith’s University.

“Just like everyone else she has been working remotely on the campaign and is determined that the Liberal Democrats win in the West of Scotland and she will be elected to the Scottish Parliament.”

They continued: “Katy has co-authored a major paper on the economy which is being debated at the party’s spring conference which puts recovery first.”

Gordon, who ran unsuccessfully in the West of Scotland region in the 2016 Holyrood election, sparked controversy in December over her campaign leaflets.

READ MORE: LibDems' deceptive election graphs fast becoming a party speciality

The flyers claimed the race in East Dunbartonshire between the SNP and LibDems is “so close” that “voting Conservative or Labour only helps the SNP”. “There’s only 149 votes in it,” the leaflet read, referring to Swinson’s margin of defeat in the 2019 General Election.

However, there is no East Dunbartonshire constituency in the Holyrood election. And in the constituency Gordon is actually contesting, Clydebank and Milngavie, the odds look considerably less favourable.

In the 2016 vote, the SNP’s Gil Paterson won 16,158 votes. Labour were next on 7726 and the Tories won 6029. The LibDems came fourth, with just 2925 votes.

Gordon’s campaign leaflet was criticised on social media. SNP campaigner Phil McCloy wrote: “Scottish LibDems chancing their arm here. The wee disclaimer on the graph doesn’t excuse your blatant attempts to mislead.

“There is no East Dunbartonshire constituency for Holyrood.”

Gordon was educated in London before studying languages at Aberdeen University. She later did a postgraduate course on careers guidance at Edinburgh Napier University. The LibDems confirmed Gordon is planning on moving to Scotland permanently if she is elected in May.