THE Boys’ Brigade is probing a Scottish Tory council candidate amid allegations they used the children’s organisation for their own political ends.

James Allan, a Conservative candidate and councillor for the Heldon and Laich ward of Moray Council, leads the 4th Lossiemouth Company Boys' Brigade (BB).

He posted on that BB Facebook page on April 15 to announce that he was “honoured and privileged” to have again been selected as a Tory candidate, and urged people to lend him their votes.

There are also allegations that young boys in the organisation were delivering Scottish Tory campaign leaflets.

However, Allan denies this to be the case, insisting it was only “parents, friends and relatives” who had done so.

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One constituent claimed to The National that BB members had been delivering Allan’s leaflets, saying: “I’m just disgusted that kids are getting used as political tools.

“I’m not sure if the parents of the Boys’ Brigade will be aware but I would have been horrified [having previously had children in the organisation]. These are kids that don’t even have the right to vote. I think it’s abhorrent.”

A post on the Lossiemouth BB page, written by Allan and posted on April 18, reads: “Big Thank You to our parents and friends for helping deliver the Lossie Local, my leaflet and the Sunrise leaflet.”

However, Allan said it was “not true at all” that any BB members had been asked to deliver his leaflets, insisting that only their parents had been asked to help out.

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He further told The National: “It’s my friends, relatives, and relations that have put it out. I never got any of the Boys’ Brigade to put anything out. I asked for parents to do it.”

Asked about the Facebook posts, Allan said: “If they want me to take it [the post of April 15] down then I will.”

He insisted the post of April 18 about distributing “my leaflet” referred only to adults and no young BB members.

The BB said they were an “apolitical organisation” that would never endorse a specific political party.

A spokesperson told The National: “The Boys’ Brigade is apolitical. We are the oldest uniformed youth organisation in the world and we have always been apolitical. We are not connected to any political party and we would never endorse any political party.

“We have been made aware of something that we are looking into.

“We have 3000 volunteers across Scotland and obviously a lot of our volunteers come from different backgrounds and have different interests but within the Boys’ Brigade we are clear it’s an apolitical organisation.”

The Scottish Conservatives have been approached for comment.

The Facebook post of April 15 referred to in this article has since been deleted.