Sturgeon adds to Labour misery with Sarwar broadside
Labour’s leadership woes intensified yesterday as Nicola Sturgeon launched a stinging attack on the business affairs of candidate Anas Sarwar.
There were even suggestions that Ms Sturgeon was deliberately teed up for her broadside at First Minister’s Questions yesterday by interim leader Alex Rowley. During exchanges on tax policy, he accused the SNP of “siding with millionaires” and being the party of the “few not the many”.
This prompted uproar on the SNP benches at Holyrood as Nationalist MSPS howled in derision and pointed towards Mr Sarwar, after it emerged his family firm does not pay workers the “real” living wage or recognise trade unions.
Mr Rowley, whose daughter Danielle runs rival candidate Richard Leonard’s campaign, rejected suggestions that he set up Mr Sarwar. “That’s just stupid, isn’t it?” he insisted.
But a spokesman for Ms Sturgeon appeared to question the interim leader’s intentions, saying: “What’s Alex Rowley got against that nice Mr Sarwar? What can I possibly say?”
The exchanges came after the first major Labour leadership hustings on Wednesday night where it was announced beforehand that the personal affairs of the candidates, including business matters, would be off limits. Mr Sarwar has been under fire after it emerged that the family firm he has a stake in, United Wholesale (Scotland) Ltd, was advertising positions at £7.50 an hour, despite Labour backing the “real” living wage of £8.45. The firm also does not recognise trade unions.
The First Minister seized the opportunity to turn Mr Rowley’s comments back on the current Labour leadership contest where Mr Sarwar is up against left-wing candidate Richard Leonard.
“I thought it was unfair of Alex Rowley to personalise this debate by bringing Anas Sarwar into it,” Ms Sturgeon said. “The problem here, as Anas Sarwar so clearly illustrates, is that there is a massive gulf – a gulf as wide as the Clyde – between what Labour says and what Labour does.
“We have a Labour leadership candidate lecturing others about doing the right thing on pay and yet his own family firm won’t pay the living wage.”
Mr Sarwar later insisted he was a minority shareholder in the family company and does not have a say in how it is run.
He added: “What I’m absolutely determined to do is to fight for the values I believe in, and return the party in which I grew up to government.”
It means Mr Leonard, already seen as the “Corbynista” candidate, will be the favourite to replace Kezia Dugdale.