The National (Scotland)

Candidate’s ‘racist’ Twitter posts came

- BY LUCY JACKSON

aid workers, innocent civilians and basic infrastruc­ture”.

Sarwar said: “To me, it is clear that the actions of the Israeli forces do not comply with internatio­nal humanitari­an law and therefore the sales of arms to Israel should stop. We need the violence to end right now.”

Speaking to journalist­s afterwards, Sarwar would not confirm or deny whether he would support the continuati­on of arms sales if UK Government lawyers found there was no breach of internatio­nal law.

The UK Labour Party’s position is that if the legal advice says arms exports should stop, then they should. However, Sarwar’s speech yesterday marked a clear

ANAS Sarwar has insisted that a suspended Scottish Labour Westminste­r candidate’s “racist” Twitter posts only happened after she was selected to represent the party.

After speaking at the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) annual congress in Dundee yesterday, Sarwar told The National that Scottish Labour has a “robust due diligence process” for selecting Westminste­r candidates.

His comments came after Wilma Brown was suspended from the party last Wednesday after it was found that she had engaged with “racist, Islamophob­ic, and transphobi­c” tweets.

Brown was selected as a candidate for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeat­h in April 2023. She was found to have liked tweets which were dated after her selection as a candidate, with the activity only coming to light several months later.

It is unclear whether Brown interacted with similar tweets before her selection, which may have been flagged by Scottish Labour’s vetting system. She has since deleted her Twitter/X account, making it

 ?? ?? Anas Sarwar
Anas Sarwar
 ?? ?? Wilma Brown was suspended by Scottish Labour after her social media posts were flagged
Wilma Brown was suspended by Scottish Labour after her social media posts were flagged
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