ANAS Sarwar really can’t resist taking a pop at The National.
Speaking to journalists outside Pollokshaws Burgh Hall on Tuesday morning, the Scottish Labour leader was asked about Keir Starmer’s recent comments praising Margaret Thatcher.
He was quick to slam Thatcher’s legacy in Scotland but refused to condemn the UK Labour leader – quel surprise.
The Scottish Labour leader urged the public to read the article and argued that the focus on the above comments was just due to the “headline or opposition attacks”.
But when asked by a journalist from The National about a recent article in The Independent that found that Starmer’s team vetoed Thatcher criticism from a shadow minister as far back as 2021, he deflected.
NEW: We asked Anas Sarwar what he made of Keir Starmer's comments about Margaret Thatcher... But he deflected with a bizarre attack on The National 👀 pic.twitter.com/x42h63HOGL
— The National (@ScotNational) December 5, 2023
Can you imagine how? Yep, by taking a bizarre pop at The National again.
This time for not condemning comments made by Alex Salmond in 2008 – a full 6 years before this paper was founded and 15 years after he made them.
He said: “I would love to have seen The National – they might not have been a publication then – but journalists now calling out Alex Salmond, one of the heroes of the nationalist movement despite being a disgraced politician now, who said that Scotland didn’t mind the economic policies of Thatcher.”
In 2008, while leader of the SNP, Salmond said Scotland “didn’t mind the economic side” of Baroness Thatcher’s tenure, but rejected the “social side”.
Salmond, in response, told Sarwar to "grow up if he ever wants to achieve anything".
