Monklandsgate was the name of a

political scandal In politics, a political scandal is an action or event regarded as morally or legally wrong and causing general public outrage. Politicians, government officials, Political party, party officials and Lobbying, lobbyists can be accused of various ...

in the former Scottish local government

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

of Monklands (now part of

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the north-east of the Glasgow City council area and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs, commuter towns, and villages. It also borders East Dunbartonshire, Falkirk (co ...

) which dominated the Monklands East by-election in 1994. Monklandsgate consisted of allegations of

sectarian Sectarianism is a debated concept. Some scholars and journalists define it as pre-existing fixed communal categories in society, and use it to explain political, cultural, or religious conflicts between groups. Others conceive of sectarianism a ...

spending discrepancies between

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

Airdrie and

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Coatbridge Coatbridge (, ) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. Along with neighbouring town Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Airdrie, Coatbridge forms the area known as the Monklands (popula ...

, fuelled by the fact that all 17 of the ruling Labour group were Roman Catholics. Accusations included: £21M spent on capital projects in Coatbridge while only £2M was spent in Airdrie; councillors handing out green job application forms while the job centre handed out white ones; and also accusations of

nepotism Nepotism is the act of granting an In-group favoritism, advantage, privilege, or position to Kinship, relatives in an occupation or field. These fields can include business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, religion or health care. In ...

as dozens of council workers were related to Labour councillors. The accusations were of increased interest to the media as the Monklands West MP was Tom Clarke, former Monklands District

Provost Provost may refer to: Officials Ecclesiastic * Provost (religion), a high-ranking church official * Prince-provost, a high-ranking church official Government * Provost (civil), an officer of local government, including the equivalent ...

and one time Shadow

Secretary of State for Scotland The secretary of state for Scotland (; ), also referred to as the Scottish secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Scotland Office. The incum ...

, while the

Monklands East Monklands East was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1983 until 1997. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post voting system. For the 1997 general electio ...

MP was the Labour leader, John Smith. The allegations of

sectarianism Sectarianism is a debated concept. Some scholars and journalists define it as pre-existing fixed communal categories in society, and use it to explain political, cultural, or Religious violence, religious conflicts between groups. Others conceiv ...

were never proven. However, allegations of

were found to be true. Despite the allegations,

Helen Liddell Helen Lawrie Liddell, Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke PC (' Reilly; born 6 December 1950) is a British politician and life peer who served as Secretary of State for Scotland from 2001 to 2003 and British High Commissioner to Australia from 2005 t ...

narrowly retained the seat for Labour, against a strong swing to

Kay Ullrich Catherine Mario Ullrich (née Morrison; 5 May 1943 – 4 January 2021) was a Scottish politician who was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the West of Scotland region from 1999 to 2003. A prominent member of the Scottish National Pa ...

of the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

References

1994 in Scotland Political scandals in Scotland Scottish Labour Coatbridge 1994 in British politics Politics of North Lanarkshire History of North Lanarkshire Nepotism Sectarianism {{Scotland-poli-stub