A SCOTTISH Greens election candidate has apologised after making “unacceptable” jokes about “being a 10 and letting anyone ride her” – in a bizarre reference to the Glasgow Subway.
Ewan Lewis, the party’s candidate in battleground seat Glasgow North East, has deleted the video in which he appeared to compare the public transport system with a woman.
In the video, Lewis said: “She’s a 10 but she lets anyone ride her. She’s a 10 but she has a high passenger count.
“She’s a 10 but she won’t come see me after six on Sundays. She’s a 10 but she’s £1.65 a ride.”
The last comments are a reference to the subway’s early closing time on Sundays and the fare for a single ticket.
Lewis finishes the video: “She’s a 10, she is the Glasgow Subway.”
The video “shocked” Anne McLaughlin, the SNP’s candidate for Glasgow North East.
She has represented the area, which is not served by the subway, since the 2019 election.
McLaughlin (above) told The National: “Everyone can make a mistake and it's the learning from it that matters. But this really shocked me that an intelligent, politically aware young man can think making jokes about a woman 'being a 10 and letting anyone ride her' is in any way acceptable.
"This constituency is full of brilliant youth projects like St Paul's Youth Forum and Royston Youth Action doing work with young boys and girls on gender-based violence and how language matters.
"I believe Ewan will learn from this but I also believe Glasgow North East needs their MP to be someone serious, who has a proven track record, and will stand up to the austerity agenda of both the Tories and Labour.”
A Scottish Greens spokesperson said: “This was clearly an unacceptable post which the candidate has removed and quite correctly apologised for.”
The seat is a key battleground, having switched to elect Labour’s Paul Sweeney who briefly ousted McLaughlin between 2015 and 2017.
Electoral Calculus gives Maureen Burke a 90% chance of repeating the SNP to Labour swing.
