Revenge is tweet
Health spokesman Anas Sarwar finds out he’s been fired on Twitter in bitter Labour reshuffle
SCOTTISH Labour were tearing themselves apart last night after leader Richard Leonard sacked a key member of his top team – on Twitter.
Health spokesman Anas Sarwar was the first highprofile casualty of a reshuffle by Leonard, and he learned his fate when he read a tweet while leading for his party in a Holyrood debate.
Party veteran Jackie Baillie, one of just four Labour MSPs to win a constituency seat in 2016, was also axed, with Leonard taking her economy brief for himself. She got the news by phone.
Sarwar said he was “deeply disappointed” and added: “It’s a shame that I came to know about this decision through Twitter, while I was leading for Labour in a health debate in the Holyrood chamber.”
Insiders said Baillie and Sarwar had paid the price for supporting former leader Kezia Dugdale, who condemned the party for cutting off funding for her legal fight against a pro-independence blog.
“Anas and Jackie have been punished for supporting Kezia,” said a party source. “It is payback, pure and simple.”
Former shadow Scots secretary Ian Murray tweeted that Leonard was carrying out “a purge of good, capable and committed people” who were being punished for “standing up for what they believe in”.
He called Sarwar “one of our most effective and likeable MSPs” and added: “I don’t know whether to be angry or sad. I thought Richard was better than this?”
Murray described Baillie’s sacking as “sad, sad, sad”. He called her one of the most effective MSPs in Holyrood”.
Leonard also brought key ally Alex Rowley back into the fold, one year after he resigned as deputy leader following allegations over his conduct. He had been suspended amid claims, which he denied, that he sent abusive text messages to an ex-partner.
Most of Leonard’s key allies keep senior positions. One, Neil Findlay, takes on a powerful role as party business manager.
The bloodbath caps a week of crisis for the party beaten by Tories at the last election. Dugdale sparked the mayhem when she said she felt “crushed” by Labour’s decision to end their help as she fights a defamation case brought by website Wings Over Scotland.
The Labour Holyrood group had an angry closed-doors meeting, which an MSP broke up by slamming a table, and Leonard said nothing about the Dugdale fall-out. A second group meeting was abandoned before it started and the regular shadow cabinet meeting was ditched.
Labour also confirmed that their head of communications, Charlie Mann, had resigned, saying: “It’s not for me.”
Sarwar, an outspoken critic of party structures, defended his front bench record and said: “For the sake of all the people who need a Labour Government, I wish Richard Leonard and his shadow cabinet all the very best for the future.”
Baillie said she was grateful to have had the chance to serve and would continue to fight for “Labour values”. She also wished Leonard well.
Leonard thanked his outgoing cabinet and hailed the new one as “a blend of skills and experience whose aim is to turn around Scottish Labour’s electoral successes”.
He said Labour support was “recovering” in Scotland.
Leonard also announced that a former head of policy for Unison, Dave Watson, will join as a policy development officer ahead of the 2021 manifesto.