SCOTTISH Labour have said they will NOT suspend a candidate caught saying his party supported the Tories at the 2019 General Election in Aberdeen South.
Footage obtained exclusively by The National showed Tauqeer Malik, the party’s candidate in the constituency, telling a voter his party wanted Tory candidate Douglas Lumsden to win at the last Westminster election.
Speaking to The Herald, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader Jackie Baillie said the candidate won’t be suspended but conceded it was a “stupid thing to do”.
🚨EXCLUSIVE: Scottish Labour candidate tells voter his party 'didn't bother at all' in 2019 in order to let the Tories win the Aberdeen South seat. 'I was hoping that [the Tory candidate] could win it,' he told a voter in this shocking video. pic.twitter.com/nyBIOn7VE0
— The National (@ScotNational) June 26, 2024
Asked what she made of the comments, Baillie said: “First of all it’s completely not true. We fight for every single vote in every single seat.
“I don’t advocate Labour voters voting for anybody else. I’ve seen what’s been on the video … it’s a very stupid thing to say.
“I’m not questioning what he is saying, but I am saying to you is that Labour’s position is not that.
“We fight for every single vote in every single seat.”
Keir Starmer has been urged to sack the candidate while Anas Sarwar has also been told to show “authority and integrity” on the issue.
Pressed on whether Malik would be suspended, Baillie said: “No, people say all sorts of things. We are not going to suspend him. It was a stupid thing to do, and it’s not true.”
Lumsden – the Tory candidate in 2019 – would finish second but was later elected as an MSP for the North East region.
In the video, Malik could be heard saying: “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.”
