Good evening and welcome to Branch Office updates. Steph Brawn here stepping in for James Walker after I covered an extraordinary Labour Party saga this week.
It would seem the Labour Party are fast becoming known for suspending candidates as much as they are for their policy U-turns.
The week began with the party suspending Glasgow councillor Audrey Dempsey who found herself at the centre of a storm over her offensive social media posts and her intense focus on “anti-white racism”, which she claims is on the rise.
Among the posts she liked were one which asked whether the burqa should be banned and another which claimed which said that “white lives don’t matter to the political class, media or justice system”.
This was then followed just 48 hours later by a Labour General Election candidate in the key target seat of Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy being suspended from the party after she was also found to have amplified “racist and Islamophobic” content.
You simply could not write it.
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On Wednesday morning, Adam le Grice – a resident who was interested in the views his local candidates in Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy – got in touch with us to say he had compiled a collection of offensive tweets Labour hopeful Wilma Brown had liked or reposted.
The content of the thread was staggering, as it highlighted how Brown (pictured below with Keir Starmer) had liked a post that told an Indian man who was expressing his love for England and its flag “you will NEVER be an Englishman” and “it is not your flag”.
She also shared posts that claimed Scottish Government aid had been sent to Hamas and endorsed tweets that claimed it was not “a coincidence” Humza Yousaf’s family had got out of Gaza.
On top of all of this, other posts she liked called for the abolition of the Scottish Parliament.
The question on everyone’s lips in the newsroom; how on earth can this person remain a Labour parliamentary candidate?
After reporting on her online behaviour, I went straight to Brown directly for comment as well as Scottish Labour. As quick as a flash, she deleted her personal Twitter account. She has still offered no apology or comment.
But what did happen just a few hours later was Labour suspended Brown pending the outcome of an investigation.
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There is now some speculation this could now damage Labour’s chances in what is a very marginal seat currently held by Alba's Neale Hanvey, and an expert has said it throws up serious questions about Labour's selection processes.
Kudos to Le Grice for taking the time to look properly at what his local candidate was getting up to online. Our eyes will certainly now be peeled on the posts of other Labour candidates as the election draws closer.
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