RUTH Davidson’s former communications chief is now advising Anas Sarwar, it has emerged.
According to reports today Eddie Barnes, who headed up Davidson's media operation when she led the party, has been helping Scottish Labour during the Holyrood campaign with messaging and voter strategy.
He helped craft Davidson’s accessible image as she brought her party back from the brink of extinction in Scotland.
Barnes now works for Gordon Brown’s pro-Union think tank Our Scottish Future but has also lent his hand to Sarwar’s campaign.
While he has kept his involvement with Labour below the radar, the party sees Barnes’s help as a coup for Sarwar, say reports.
One source told the Spectator: "He wants to save the Union. It’s his number one task."
When the magazine approached Scottish Labour for a comment, a spokesperson said: "Eddie Barnes has known Anas Sarwar for many years and has offered some advice to him during this campaign."
The publication's journalist Isabel Hardman wrote in her article today: "I understand his involvement goes rather further than some advice’, though.
"That Barnes is helping Labour suggests that he feels the Tories have reached their high water mark in Scotland and that unionists need to work on boosting Labour instead."
Eddie Barnes, pictured centre, briefing Scottish journalists
Hardman commented: "It is rather less of a coup for the party Barnes previously worked for.
"The Conservatives have a much noisier anti-independence message in the Scottish parliamentary elections than Labour, which is trying to appeal to voters who previously backed 'Yes'."
The election has seen high approval ratings for Sarwar with polls suggesting voters regard him as warm and personable.
READ MORE: Scottish election: The top 10 battleground constituencies to watch
His campaign has been regarded as upbeat, though opinion surveys still predict Labour will return to third place in Holyrood and fail to achieve their ambition of beating the Tories to become the main opposition party.
Barnes left his job as the Scottish Conservatives communications chief in January last year.
He was succeeded last September by former leading crime reporter Russell Findlay as the party's new director of communications.
Findlay used to work as an investigative journalist for the Sunday Mail, the Scottish Sun and STV.
Barnes used to work as a political journalist for the Scotsman and the Daily Mail.
Commenting on Sarwar being advised by Barnes, SNP Depute Leader Keith Brown said: “Labour are actively keeping alive their toxic alliance with the Tories - clearly they learned nothing from the Better Together campaign.
"Just the day after Alistair Darling said Anas Sarwar shares Tory priorities, we find out Ruth Davidson's former political adviser is working for the Scottish Labour leader.
"The Tories didn’t win under Eddie Barnes and it looks like Labour won’t either.
"Labour voters will rightly be horrified to see how closely linked the Scottish Tories and Labour are - it confirms that Labour are incapable of standing up for Scotland and standing up to the Tories, regardless of how badly they treat Scotland.
“This election is about who has the leadership and the experience to keep Scotland safe during the pandemic and build a recovery, and who will stand up for Scotland against the Tories at Westminster.
"A vote for the SNP is a vote for the experienced leadership of Nicola Sturgeon to get the country through the pandemic, into recovery and to protect Scotland from the Tories at Westminster. It is clearer than ever that a vote for Labour is once again a vote to leave our future in the hands of Boris Johnson."
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