A SCOTTISH Labour candidate has been suspended by the party following reports that he shared material online which appeared to downplay Russia’s role in the Salisbury poisonings.
The BBC reports Andy Brown, who is standing in Aberdeen North and Moray East, in April 2018 shared an article from Russian state media outlet RT (formerly known as Russia Today) which claimed the “toxin” used in the poisonings was “never produced in Russia, but was in service in the US, UK, and other Nato states”.
Dawn Sturgess, 44, died after being exposed to the nerve agent Novichok, which had been left in a discarded perfume bottle in Amesbury, Wiltshire, in July 2018.
It followed the attempted murders of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia and ex-police officer Nick Bailey, who were poisoned in nearby Salisbury in March that year.
All three survived, as did Sturgess’s boyfriend, Charlie Rowley.
The Metropolitan Police identified three suspects wanted in connection with the poisonings: Denis Sergeev, Alexander Mishkin and Anatoliy Chepiga, who used the aliases Sergey Fedotov, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov respectively while in the UK.
According to the Press and Journal, in the same month Brown also shared a quote from a Jewish historian which said: “The real issue.. is that right-wing Jews in the Labour party and outside the party object to the fact that Jeremy Corbyn is a consistent supporter of Palestinian rights.”
Brown (above) completely denied having made or shared the posts, telling BBC News: "I didn’t share those. Where they’ve been shared from or how has someone accessed my account and shared them, it may have been corrupted at some point – but honestly, I did not share those."
He went on: "No, I definitely didn’t make that. I would never like these at all. It’s not the sort of comments I would comment on."
A spokesman for Scottish Labour told the BBC: “Andy Brown has been administratively suspended from the Labour Party pending investigation.
“We have taken the decision to withdraw support from a Parliamentary candidate during a General Election.
“Anas Sarwar and Keir Starmer have changed the Labour Party and said that every candidate and MP would operate to the highest standards. This action shows that they meant it.”
Brown will still appear as a Labour candidate on the ballot as the deadline for nominations has passed, meaning he will stand as an independent if elected on July 4.
