STRIDING home from the pub on Saturday night, a contact sent me a video by WhatsApp.
“Would the National enjoy the Aberdeen South Labour candidate saying he wanted the Tories to win in 2019?” they asked.
“Belter,” I replied. “Can I hang on to this?”
We held onto the story for a few days to allow me to go to the Conservative manifesto launch and get out to Cumbernauld for a constituency profile.
By Wednesday, I had enough time to look at this extraordinary story properly.
Tauqeer Malik was caught on camera telling a voter that Labour – his party – threw the 2019 election, hoping that the Tories would keep the seat. It is a staggering admission from a party whose main pitch is to get the Tories out.
Labour’s defence? He was simply lying.
The story went from a simple tip to our front page fairly rapidly. Since the original piece, we have published 11 more stories on it.
I quickly followed it up with the 2019 Labour candidate in Aberdeen South Shona Simpson responding to Malik’s claim, saying it was “ridiculous”.
Then my colleague Steph Brawn highlighted how shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray had been spotted out on the campaign trail with Malik.
Analysis by Xander Elliards of what the revelations really tell us about Labour’s priorities in Scotland came the same day.
Then followed a barrage of reaction and some more analysis on Scotland’s “Better Together” councils, where Labour and the Tories are working together to keep the SNP out.
Keir Starmer then Anas Sarwar (above) were urged to sack Malik for his comments.
Yesterday, I ventured out from our Glasgow office to Kirkcaldy, Fife, to do a profile on one of Scotland’s key battleground seats.
As luck would have it, Sarwar was there. The press call was not well attended, meaning that in effect The National was given a rare (for us, for obvious reasons) exclusive interview with the Scottish Labour leader.
Are you going to sack him, I asked. Sarwar said what Malik had told this voter was “stupid” and “not true”.
I was quite surprised to hear him use those words. “Not true”. Not that they were “wrong” or “mistaken” but not true.
Labour’s defence was that their candidate, the man they ostensibly want to represent part of one of Scotland’s great cities, is a man happy to lie to members of the public on their doorsteps.
Is he a paper candidate, I followed up. Sarwar implied they really did want him to win. Labour won 3000 votes in Aberdeen South last time around. It looks unlikely they expect to do much better this time around.
Our second front page on the story was sorted.
Our scoop got followed up in Aberdeen Live, The Herald, and the Press and Journal, further putting the heat on Labour.
It’s amazing how one message can lead to a story that just runs and runs and runs. The moral of the story for readers of The National: if you think you’ve got a story for us – let us know!
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