A FORMER Labour candidate has hit out at her successor after he claimed she threw her campaign to defeat the SNP.
Tauqeer Malik claimed his predecessor “did not do anything” with the deliberate goal of giving the Tories the best chance of holding onto Aberdeen South at the last election.
In Ring doorbell footage shared exclusively with The National, Malik said he had wanted Tory candidate Douglas Lumsden to win against Stephen Flynn (below).
The Labour candidate said: “When Douglas was candidate, Douglas Lumsden, in 2019 we did not bother, Labour did not bother at all, we were hoping that Douglas would make it.
“That’s why Labour had only 3000, because we did not do anything.”
In 2019, Labour’s candidate was Shona Simpson, who has since made a number of failed attempts to become a councillor in the city.
She told The National Malik’s claims were not true.
Simpson said: “I certainly did not throw the election, absolutely not.
"That’s a ridiculous statement, no absolutely no.”
A Scottish Labour source added: “She is right. We just got beat.”
Malik’s comments cast further doubt on Labour’s approach to the 2019 General Election, where the party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn (above) suffered its worst election result since 1935.
Keir Starmer has struggled to answer questions about how he fought the campaign. He has disowned his predecessor and kicked him out of the Labour Party.
But earlier this month he claimed that Corbyn would have been a better prime minister than Boris Johnson.
Malik was among nine candidates suspended by then-Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale for going into coalition with the Tories on Aberdeen Council.
