SALMOND WANTS REVENGE, SAYS SARWAR
Sarwar says Alba Party is about its founder’s huge ego
SCOTTISH Labour leader Anas Sarwar has accused Alex Salmond of standing for Holyrood as part of a “revenge” mission against his former protegee Nicola Sturgeon.
Sarwar said the ex-first minister is “pretending” his comeback bid is about IndyRef2.
He also stepped up his criticisms of Douglas Ross by saying the Scottish Tory leader fronts a “gameplaying, inward-looking, childish opposition”.
The election campaign has so far been overshadowed by Salmond launching the pro-independence Alba Party, following a bitter fallout with Sturgeon over the Scottish Government’s unlawful investigation into him.
Salmond has said the aim of his new party is to create a supermajority of MSPs by only standing on the regional lists for the Holyrood election but critics have said it is an attempt to manipulate the electoral system.
But, asked if he believed that the attempt to create a supermajority was about gaming the system, Sarwar said yesterday: “I think it’s worse than that.
“I think he [Salmond] is pretending that this is about a referendum, and is pretending this about trying to create an advantage when what he is interested in is revenge, not recovery.”
Sarwar took over the job from Richard Leonard weeks ago against a backdrop of dire opinion polls for Scottish Labour.
His initial aim is to recapture second place from the Tories and has put a “national recovery plan” at the centre of his campaign.
The new Scottish Labour leader is contesting the Glasgow Southside constituency against Sturgeon and was judged to have performed strongly in Tuesday night’s BBC leaders’ debate.
“The circus we’ve seen over the last few days, we cannot allow that to be the circus of the next six weeks,” said Sarwar.
“We can’t allow that to be the
Scotland deserves so much better than that ANAS SARWAR ON CONFLICT BETWEEN SNP AND ALBA
circus of the next five years of our parliament. Scotland deserves so much better than that.
“We can’t allow SNP infighting, and egos, settling of scores or going back to the old arguments to distract us from what is the biggest challenge of our lifetime.”
And like in Tuesday’s leaders’ debate, Sarwar also criticised Ross, who has focused largely on opposition to IndyRef2. He said: “We can’t elect a gameplaying, inward looking, childish opposition either that is devoid of ideas.”
Sarwar, who has declared an emergency over cancer services, also said Scotland can trust Labour to fix the mess by turning their backs on a “failing” Government and the Tories.