CAMMY Day has resigned as the leader of Edinburgh council after he was accused of sending sexual messages to Ukrainian refugees.
He was suspended from the Labour Party after the allegations and has until now remained silent on the allegations, first revealed over the weekend by the Sunday Mail.
The paper said it had spoken to two Ukrainians who said they had felt “under pressure” and unable to ignore the messages, adding that they had had tried to ignore hints about sex and meeting up.
A police complaint has also been made against Day and the force said last week it was looking into allegations of “inappropriate behaviour” in order to “establish the full circumstances”.
In a statement, Day said that “recent commentary on my personal life is detracting from the important work this Labour-led council does”.
He added: “I have yet to be contacted by the police but want to reiterate that I will cooperate fully with their ongoing enquiries.”
Day's resignation throws into doubt Labour's continued control over Edinburgh council, with the party holding just 10 seats out of 61.
Before he quit, Day was one of Scotland’s most prominent local authority figures, occasionally appearing with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar at events.
He had been deputy leader of Edinburgh City Council when Labour were in coalition with the SNP.
The SNP were furious when Labour struck a deal to enable them to run a minority administration, despite the former being the largest party in the city after the 2022 local elections.
Labour had managed to force out the SNP two years ago through a deal with the Tories and the LibDems.
Whether that arrangement will continue in Day's absence is unclear.
Simita Kumar, the leader of the SNP group in Edinburgh, said that the allegations against Day were "extremely grave".
She added: "It was unquestionable that Cammy Day had to stand down as the leader of Edinburgh City Council. This resignation should have come sooner, and in my view should have come with an apology."
Kumar gave no indication what Day's resignation might mean for the politics of Edinburgh council, saying only that she was "reaching out to the other group leaders, opening discussions on how we find a way to begin to rebuild trust and that allows us to move through this".
