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I NEVER knew that “delivering for Scotland” meant delivering another costly by-election.
Until this week, that is – which has been an absolute stinker for Anas Sarwar and Scottish Labour.
First, on Sunday – yes, technically the start of the week for Gregorian calendar stans – Glasgow City Council’s newest Labour councillor was disqualified after she failed to quit her job with the local authority.
Mary McNab was voted in as the new councillor for the Glasgow North East ward last month but failed to comply with the necessary legislation, which automatically disqualified her from being an elected member.
`It now means residents in the area are likely to face another costly (as much as £200,000) by-election.
The Scottish Labour leader then walked into the (branch) office on Monday to be informed that Glasgow Labour councillor Philip Braat had been charged in connection with stalking offences.
It came just weeks after another Scottish Labour councillor, Inverclyde Council leader Stephen McCabe, was separately charged with assault and threatening or abusive behaviour.
So, on Tuesday morning, Sarwar descended upon a hungry press pack. And then proceeded to dig a hole for himself.
The Scottish Labour leader denied the arrests suggested a wider cultural issue within the party. And then, when asked about the council by-election legal blunder, ignited a wider feud by refusing to apologise.
“I don’t think this one’s on the Labour Party to be honest. I think there is a wider administrative issue here,” he said.
Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken (above) disagreed.
Writing in the Glasgow Times, the SNP politician said: “Given Labour’s responsibility for this, perhaps the multi-millionaires who run and bankroll the party can dip into their pockets and compensate for this mess.”
Sarwar then headed for Holyrood that afternoon.
The goal? To get one up on the Scottish Government by introducing amendments to the Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill to introduce a replacement to the Winter Fuel Payment.
The issue? The SNP subsequently announced they would push ahead with their own scheme, the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment.
The Holyrood vote, predictably, failed.
Then Wednesday came, and the stage was set for Shona Robison’s Scottish Budget statement.
This, surely, would offer some respite.
After all, the new Labour Government had provided the “largest funding settlement for Scotland in the history of devolution”.
But a curve ball came in the form of the SNP announcing the abolishment of the two-child benefit cap for families in Scotland – which will see the Scottish Government mitigate the controversial Labour policy.
Sarwar said the Budget was a “squandered opportunity” and that plans to scrap the two-child benefit cap are a “policy without a penny”.
But it will certainly provide a headache for Sarwar, with several of his MSPs having been long-time campaigners on scrapping the policy – and who may find it hard not to vote with the Budget as a consequence.
It would be a week to forget for Sarwar if this week's events didn't also have lengthy implications for the future.
