THE Tories and Labour have been accused of attempting to hide their coalition on West Lothian Council days before the local election after an anonymous user removed their partnership from the local authority’s Wikipedia page.
The edit was picked up by Livingston South Green candidate Cameron Glasgow who noticed the Conservative part of the coalition formed in 2017 had been removed from a table showing the council’s electoral history, leaving it to just say “Scottish Labour Party”.
An anonymous user – thought to be from the Edinburgh area according to the IP address – had made the change just before 10pm on Sunday.
Glasgow said on social media the “low move” showed the Tories wanted to hide the fact they chose to team up with Labour to form an administration in 2017 just before voters go to the polls on Thursday.
While sharing a screenshot of the edit, he tweeted: “I know the @ScotTories don’t like to acknowledge the agreement with @ScottishLabour in West Lothian Council, but editing Wikipedia at night to hide the fact is a low move.”
In a panel down the right-hand side of the Wikipedia page, it still says only Labour form the administration and the Conservatives are under “other parties”.
Once Glasgow spotted the edit, he swiftly corrected it to make sure residents were clear on the facts before heading to the ballot box.
The edit history shows the change was made on Sunday night
Anyone can edit Wikipedia pages at any time.
Glasgow added: “Labour and the Conservatives have been in an alliance in West Lothian for around 10 years, although both are very keen to deny this.
“The joint administration have continually used the constitutional debate to block any opposition.
“Both Labour and the Tories have distanced themselves from each other in West Lothian but trying to rewrite history like this is shocking.
“I'm glad I managed to catch this and change it back as it's important that people know the facts that voting Labour in West Lothian is a vote for the Conservatives.
“Greens will never go into any kind of agreement with the Tories. Our focus is on building a fairer, greener future and securing the first Green councillors in West Lothian.”
Although his tweet only accuses the Tories of making the edit, Glasgow told the National he felt it could've been either group attempting to cover up the alliance.
The Tories have since hit back and said a “conspiracy theory” has been conjured up and they are completely unaware of any activity on the Wikipedia page.
A Scottish Conservative spokesperson said: “We've not got the slightest idea what's happened on the West Lothian Wikipedia page and we won't be looking into any conspiracy theories on that front either.
“There's an important election on Thursday and we're going to focus on that."
Scottish Labour have refused to comment.
