THE SNP’s depute leader has asked Anas Sarwar if he has any “authority and integrity” after footage revealed Labour's Aberdeen South candidate saying his party “didn’t bother” trying to stop the Tories win the seat in 2019.
A video obtained exclusively by The National showed Labour’s Tauqeer Malik saying his party supported Tory candidate Douglas Lumsden in 2019.
He was caught making the bombshell admission on a doorbell camera and said: “When Douglas was [the Conservative] candidate, Douglas Lumsden, in 2019, we did not bother, Labour did not bother at all, we were hoping that Douglas would make it.
“That’s why Labour had only 3000 [votes], because we did not do anything.”
Keir Starmer has already been urged to sack the candidate and Keith Brown has now written to Anas Sarwar on the issue.
The National has approached Scottish Labour for comment.
READ THE FULL LETTER
Dear Anas,
Yesterday, it was revealed that a Labour Party candidate endorsed the Tories to win in 2019. Let's be clear what that means: a current Labour candidate in Scotland was campaigning behind the scenes to herald in a Boris Johnson Tory government.
This video footage is firm evidence that under your leadership, Labour in Scotland are in collusion with the Tories - no matter the consequences for Scotland.
Clearly your claim that the Labour Party wants to remove the Tories is now in tatters.
As the main challenger to the Tories, the SNP has the chance to remove every Tory MP in Scotland and put Scotland’s interests first. It's a sad indictment of the Labour Party that it was fighting to save those very same Tories.
We also know this is not an isolated incident. In the Tory held seat of Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, the Labour Party has no candidate and across all Conservative-held seats in Scotland you are sending Labour activists elsewhere.
In every corner of Scotland, the SNP is working to remove Tory MPs from office but it is clear the same cannot be said of Labour.
Your party is at best absent, and at worst complicit, in an attempt to help the Tories return Scottish seats.If you have any authority and integrity, you will remove the Labour candidate in Aberdeen South immediately.
A failure to do so will be an admission Labour are working to return Tory seats in Scotland again on 4th July.
Yours sincerely,
Keith Brown MSP
