Rev George Hargreaves has dropped out of the election race for the Western Isles seat.
The leader of the Scottish Christian Party confirmed to Hebrides News that he will not stand as a candidate at the forthcoming general election after his wife was diagnosed with brain cancer.
Maxine Hargreaves, 49, requires an urgent operation which is scheduled to take place this month.
She became ill at New Year and the results of a MRI scan last week confirmed a tumour is pressing on her brain.
Mr Hargreaves said: “I am pulling out because my wife has a brain tumour.
“As a husband my wife comes first. It has been a hard, hard time.
“She became ill after I left Stornoway around Christmas time. She had a MRI scan and we found out on Thursday.
“This is her third tumour and it is pressing on her brain.”
The London Pentecostal pastor wants to devote his time to helping his wife in her battle against cancer.
Mr Hargreaves, 53, was expected to be announced as his party’s choice to fight the Western Isles seat at the election tipped to be held in early May.
Maxine Hargreaves is also a Pentecostal minister and planned to stand against Labour’s sitting MP Diane Abbott for the Hackney North seat at the May election.
But the Western Isles is the party’s top target where it made serious inroads in the past.
The party is upgrading a newly acquired office in Stornoway town centre and allocated a huge £30,000 budget to the isles’ contest
One plank of the London Pentecostal pastor’s strategy was to demolish the vote from the SNP after a regular Sunday ferry was launched on its watch.
But a plan to run an American style “Open Primary” contest to select a candidate was scuppered when Mr Hargreaves was revealed to be the sole nominee.
He insisted he was not prepared to accept the candidacy on the basis of a ‘no-
But now he has completely withdrawn his name from the isles’ election fight
The party is upgrading a newly acquired office in Stornoway town centre and allocated a huge £30,000 budget to the Western Isles contest.
In the 2007 Scottish elections, the Scottish Christian Party, under its former name of Operation Christian Vote, took 7.6% of the vote in the constituency.
It grabbed a 9% share in last year’s European contest, coming in third place behind SNP and Labour.
Rev Hargreaves pulls out of election race 8/2/10