RICHARD LEONARD is facing a growing backlash after bringing Alex Rowley into his shadow cabinet, despite allegations he harassed a former girlfriend who said their relationship felt like “emotional blackmail and abuse”.
Mr Rowley’s former partner has hit out at the decision, saying she was “disgusted”.
She told The Sun: “I feel sick to my stomach. He’s managed to worm his way back in. My nightmare starts again.”
The woman, 49, said she felt ill after hearing about the reshuffle, adding: “I nearly threw my telly out the window. It’s just unbelievable.”
The move has also been fiercely criticised by former MP Gemma Doyle, who urged the party’s MSPs to “take a collective stand” against it, while Glasgow Labour councillor Eva Murray said it was “sending the wrong message”.
Lawyer and former Holyrood candidate Cat Headley said: “This is not a good look. Not ever and especially not now.”
There was also a row after the Scottish Labour Women’s Movement (SLWM), which includes Mr Rowley’s daughter Danielle, the MP for Midlothian, on its steering committee, issued a statement in support of Mr Rowley’s return to the Scottish Labour frontbench.
It said: “The police found no evidence of wrongdoing and the complainant did not engage with the Scottish Labour Party investigation. We are satisfied Scottish Labour made all reasonable endeavours to determine the facts and no further action was required.
"On this basis, we see no reason why Alex Rowley should be precluded from inclusion in the shadow cabinet.”
However, Ms Murray, who is also on the SLWM steering committee, said she was never consulted on the statement.
Writing on Twitter, she said: “I’m supposedly on the steering committee. I wasn’t consulted on this statement. In the time of #MeToo & more timely the Kavanaugh nomination, we are absolutely sending the wrong message. “Rowley should not have been allowed back.”
- READ MORE: Unspun - the political diary
Also reacting to the SLWM statement, Duncan Hothersall, editor of the Labour Hame website, tweeted: “What the f*** are you doing?” And former Labour NUS president Mandy Telford said: “Unbelievable and depressing. I expected better.”
Mr Rowley quit as deputy Scottish leader last November after an anonymous former partner told a newspaper the Mid Scotland and Fife MSP had made her life “hell” after they broke up in 2011, sending her abusive text messages, and that she twice reported him to the police.
Mr Rowley said he totally refuted the claims and referred himself to the party for an investigation in order to clear his name.
The inquiry ended a few weeks later after the woman refused to bow to a Labour Party demand that she deliver a full statement to Mr Rowley and his lawyers.
She declined on the grounds it would disclose details of her personal life to Mr Rowley.
Mr Rowley, a former Scottish Labour general secretary and leader of Fife Council, is close to Mr Leonard. His daughter Danielle ran Mr Leonard’s leadership campaign last year.
Despite saying he would be impartial in the contest while interim leader, Mr Rowley was secretly taped at Labour conference backing the pro-Corbyn Mr Leonard against his moderate rival, Anas Sarwar.
Jackie Baillie, a supporter of Mr Sarwar, said Mr Rowley had plotted to destabilise Kezia Dugdale’s leadership and install Mr Leonard.
Ms Baillie and Mr Sarwar were the only MSPs sacked by Mr Leonard in his reshuffle.
A Labour source said Mr Leonard has given the pair ample time to back his plans, but they had briefed behind his back and had to go. Speaking to ITV about Mr Rowley’s return, Mr Leonard said: “The case against Alex was never prosecuted because there was a failure to engage in the process by the person who made the complaint, so the case was discharged.”
A Labour spokesman said: “Alex brings a wealth of experience of local government and campaigning to the shadow cabinet, and will be an effective voice in setting out a positive agenda for real change.”
Mr Rowley declined to comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel