SNP makes sure Meatloaf candidate's hair is gone like a bat out of hell

HIS makeover may not have cost the reputed £90,000 spent to smarten up US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Instead, a simple trip to the hairdressers to remove his beloved ponytail sufficed.

Prior to being selected to fight the city's Forth ward in the forthcoming council by-election, SNP hopeful George Gordon's political opponents likened him to rock star Meatloaf.

But now having had the "snip", and having forsaken his normal jeans and T-shirt in favour of a pinstripe suit, he looks more like a city banker than the "hippy" he admits he once was.

Mr Gordon has denied the transformation was ordered by the SNP's top brass as a condition of his selection.

According to political gossip in the north of the city, Edinburgh Nationalist leader Steve Cardownie and MSP Kenny MacAskill were behind the decision to tell the 47-year-old the ponytail had to go.

However, he insisted it was his own choice to lose the ponytail, which he said has "taken a few years off me".

The November 6 by-election is widely expected to be a two-way contest between Labour's Cammy Day and Mr Gordon, a Royston/Wardieburn community councillor who last year narrowly lost out in the SNP's selection process for the same ward to Cllr Cardownie.

One political insider said today: "Cardownie told George that if he wanted to stand as a candidate, he had to smarten himself up.

"He'd been going around with long hair down his back, and wore jeans and a T-shirt. He also smells of smoke and his hobby is protecting swans.

"So he was sent off to get a £70 makeover, and he now walks round in a pinstripe suit like a banker. He looks completely different."

Another source said: "He used to look like Meatloaf, so Cardownie ordered him to clean up his image."

Mr Gordon said: "When I was standing as a candidate for the internal election within the SNP, it became a general discussion point.

"There's nothing really to tell. I decided I looked better without (the ponytail] and that was it. It took a few years off me.

"I had the ponytail for about 12 or 13 years. It's just a normal hairstyle now. The hairdresser tidied me up and made me look pretty again.

"There have been rumours that Kenny MacAskill was saying something about it, and it's snowballed.

"But it was my own decision – nobody forced me. I asked for general opinion. I had been going around looking like a hippy for a few years."

Cllr Cardownie said accusations of his involvement are "a load of nonsense".

"George had his ponytail for some time, but he's serious about being a councillor," he said.

"His political opponents must be desperate in the extreme."

Mr MacAskill added: "This is utter nonsense. This isn't my area and, frankly, I've got other things to concentrate my mind on. George is an excellent candidate and will be an excellent councillor."

A total of nine candidates are standing in the contest, which is being held following the tragic death of Labour councillor Elizabeth Maginnis last month.