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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
National
Steph Brawn

Ian Murray spotted campaigning with 'help the Tories' Labour candidate

SCOTTISH Labour's Ian Murray has been spotted campaigning with a fellow candidate who has admitted to helping the Tory campaign at the last election.

Footage obtained by The National and captured on a Ring doorbell shows Tauqeer Malik telling a voter Labour secretly supported the Tory candidate Douglas Lumsden in Aberdeen South in 2019.

The voter was told that Labour deliberately fumbled their 2019 campaign when the party was led by Jeremy Corbyn so as to give the Tory bid a boost.

Now Murray, who is campaigning to keep his seat in Edinburgh South, has been spotted campaignign with Malik in Aberdeen.

Malik has shared a picture of the two of them on Twitter/X alongside a post which states: "We received a warm welcome from Garthdee residents when the @ScottishLabour bus stopped outside Inchgarth Community Centre to speak with voters.

"All saying the same thing. it’s time for change it’s time for Labour, it’s time for Malik."

Murray was also pictured in a separate post by Malik in front of a Labour campaign bus following their visit to Aberdeen FC. 

In 2019, Labour’s candidate in Aberdeen South was Shona Simpson, who has since made a number of failed attempts to become a councillor in the city.

She told The National Malik’s claims she tried to throw the election were not true.

Elsewhere in the footage, Malik fondly reminisced about working with Conservative candidate John Wheeler while they were in coalition with the Tories on Aberdeen City Council.

That arrangement led to the then-Scottish Labour leader suspending Malik along with other colleagues dubbed the Aberdeen Nine.

In the footage, Malik called the Conservative candidate Wheeler “my friend” but urged the voter to back him instead to stop the SNP winning the seat. 

In the video, Malik added: “When Douglas was 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, because we did not do anything.”

Scottish Labour have been approached for comment. 

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