HUNDREDS of election leaflets written in Welsh were mistakenly sent to Gaelic speaking parts of Scotland as part of Labour's drive for votes in next week's European poll.

The error was mocked online by political opponents.

Green MSP for the Highlands and Islands John Finnie tweeted a picture of the leaflet, which had English down one side and Welsh down the other.

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Alongside the picture of the leaflet, he wrote that he was a "big fan" of the Welsh language - adding "canan uabhasach math" which is Gaelic for "a very good language".


"Seems @scottishlabour are keen to promote [the Welsh language] too, by this leaflet, across Highlands and Islands", he said.

The bilingual leaflets, in English and Welsh, were distributed to households in Ross-shire.

There were also reports today that some voters in Edinburgh had also received the Welsh batch by mistake. 


A Scottish Labour spokesman said: "A small batch of leaflets were mistakenly sent to the wrong location and we're looking into how this happened.

"Most importantly, no personal data was shared."

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Earlier this year, the party was criticised for using shots of the Welsh mountain Tryfan in Snowdonia in a campaign video about their vision for Scotland.

It comes after Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie joked that he wanted Nicola Sturgeon to call him "Edna" in future after an SNP election leaflet addressed to 'Edna Rennie' was sent to his address.

The mix up affected hundreds of households, with SNP flyers sent to homes addressed to people who had never lived there.

The SNP has referred itself to the Information Commissioner's Office but the party has described it as a clerical error, stressing that there is no problem with identity theft or data security.