SCOTTISH LABOUR have been accused of having their “heads in the sand” after two crushing Westminster by-election defeats.
Despite Labour retaining Makerfield in Greater Manchester, paving a way to Downing Street for Andy Burnham, the party suffered heavy losses north of the Border.
Heather Doran and Nurul Hoque Ali both struggled to retain their deposits in Arbroath and Broughty Ferry and Aberdeen South.
The Arbroath election saw Labour's vote collapse spectacularly, falling from 33.4% in 2024 to just 6.1% and the party went from second to last place.
The picture in Aberdeen was similar, where Labour fell from 24.7% in 2024 to 5.4%, sliding from second place to fourth, where they were just one percentage point ahead of the LibDems.
Brian Leishman, the MP for Alloa and Grangemouth, said: “Those in charge of Scottish Labour need to wake up to the fact that the Scottish people don’t want what we are offering.
“The front of it being 'business as usual' from the Scottish leadership in Holyrood is incredible head in the sand stuff. Scottish Labour must change.”
In a social media post on Friday morning, Anas Sarwar said the Scottish candidates’ results “didn’t match their efforts”.
The Scottish Labour leader, who led his party to its worst-ever election result last month, said: “Congratulations to Andy Burnham and the Labour team on a big win in Makerfield.
“Thank you to our candidates and activists in Aberdeen South and Arbroath and Broughty Ferry. They ran spirited campaigns, but the results didn’t match their efforts.
“It’s clear that lessons need to be learned, but it also proves that Reform can be beaten across the UK.”
Recriminations are also underway in the SNP after they lost Aberdeen South to the Tories.
The Tories have been credited with running a tightly-focused campaign on oil and gas and former SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, who held the seat for the SNP before quitting the Commons for Holyrood, issued a pointed message to his party colleagues in the wake of the result.
In a tweet, Flynn said: "A tough night in Aberdeen that some will need to reflect on, quite heavily."
Elsewhere, a senior SNP source told ITV Border: "People central to John’s team were clearly warned if you don’t take job losses seriously you get political losses – that’s what happened.
"They’ll now go into a comfort zone and tell themselves that it was [former SNP chief executive Peter] Murrell’s fault, we didn’t want a by-election, turnout was bad – when really they put themselves in a ridiculous position where the Scottish National Party couldn’t be on the side of Scottish jobs and resources.”
Scottish Labour were approached for comment.
