Anas Sarwar has defended Scottish Labour’s candidate selection after criticism from the SNP over a number of activists from England being chosen to fight seats north of the border.
The party’s pick in Angus and Perthshire Glens is Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, a councillor from Canterbury, in Kent.
Labour’s candidate in Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross is Eva Kestner, who works as a councillor in Lewisham in London.
Last week, Melanie Ward, who lives in London was selected to fight the target seat of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.
That followed the deselection of Wilma Brown - who had been selected by the local party - following an outcry over “racist” social media posts.
READ MORE: Scottish Labour candidate Wilma Brown dropped after probe into tweets
Dr Lucy Beattie, the SNP’s candidate in Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, accused Labour of “parachuting in paper candidates.”
“With the merest sniff of a return to Westminster government Labour have reverted to type – unashamedly taking the people of Scotland for granted,” she added.
“No one should trust a party that can’t convince their own local members to get behind Keir Starmer’s pro-Brexit, pro-austerity agenda.”
Speaking to journalists in Glasgow, Mr Sarwar said there were people who had “connections and ties to Scotland who want to come and serve the Scottish people.”
“And I am not going to run my back on somebody that has a love for Scotland, a story about Scotland or a connection in Scotland that wants to deliver for the people of Scotland.”
READ MORE: SNP has 'squandered' opportunities of devolution says Sarwar
He pointed to Ms Ward, who is the chief executive of the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians.
“She is spending every minute of every day trying to get life-saving supplies into the Gaza Strip, to save people's lives, to get them the necessary treatment they need because of a completely broken health system.”
“Nobody can tell me she is not a phenomenal candidate standing in a Scottish seat who would be a great champion for the Scottish Labour party, and deliver change for the Scottish people whilst also celebrating Labour's internationalism to defeat poverty and injustice right around the world.
“I'm proud of our candidates. We're brimming with talent, whe're brimming with confidence, and I can't wait to elect a whole host of new Scottish MPs and a whole host of new Scottish Labour MSPs in government delivering for the Scottish people. “
“In constituencies across Scotland like Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, it’s clear only the SNP are focused on Scotland’s priorities and building a better future for everyone.”
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