Scottish Labour needs to ask some tough questions on attitudes towards race

Are there undercurrents of racism and Islamophobia within the membership of the Scottish Labour Party? It is only right that the claims by leadership contender Anas Sarwar about what was said to him by a prominent member of the party should be fully investigated (your report, 30 January). It should neverthe- less be pointed out that this was unlikely to be the cause of his defeat by Richard Leonard. The latter’s strong trade union links and the broad perception among a lot of the membership that he was a Jeremy Corbyn acolyte were decisive in giving him a victory. Mr Sarwar managed to identify himself with the unfashionable Blairite wing of the party; this was a matter he found it quite difficult to overcome.

On the face of it, it would be astonishing that a leader of a Labour-led local authority should make such a remark even in private. All Labour members should be aware of the egalitarian sentiments outlined on membership cards, and the amount of legislation on race relations and equality that has been passed over more than half a century. Yet the outcome of the referendum on the European Union should be a lesson to all involved in active politics. There seems to be a big difference between the attitudes and sentiments of the political class and the people they seek to persuade to their cause. The person who caused Mr Sarwar such offence sought to justify the remarks by reference to what he or she thought constituents believed. If so, things don’t seem to have moved forward from the days when landladies would refuse lets to black people “because the neighbours might take offence”. Scottish Labour needs to investigate the circumstances of Mr Sarwar’s conversation but it also needs to ask searching questions about what some of its core support believe about race and immigration.

BOB TAYLOR Shiel Court, Glenrothes