Labour race row accused denies Sarwar claim
● Cleared councillor brands MSP’S allegations ‘utter nonsense’
The Scottish Labour councillor accused of using racist language about MSP Anas Sarwar has said the claims were “untrue”.
Davie Mclachlan, a councillor in South Lanarkshire, was controversially cleared after a 15-month investigation by a party disciplinary hearing that refused to hear evidence from Mr Sarwar.
The MS P has called on Labour to explain why Mr Mclachan was told he had “no case to answer” and has received the backing of Scottish Parliament colleagues.
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard has also voiced disquiet at the disciplinary process.
Mr Mclachlan maintains he did not call Mr S ar war a “brown, Muslim Paki” i na phone conversation in 2017.
Speaking to the Sunday Mail newspaper, the councillor said he had gone through a “living nightmare” and claimed complaints about the disciplinary process were a smokescreen.
“If An as was sitting here right now, I would just ask him why – why he chose to do this to me and whether he has any idea how it impacted on myself and my family,” Mr Mclachlan said.
He added :“It’ s utter nonsense that I’d ever have used that sort of language or harboured that view. It’s certainly true that Anas gained a lot of publicity for the Islamophobia campaign he was launching that week – having failed to mention this untrue allegation for over four months.”
Mr Mclachlan highlighted a post on Twitter from Mr Sarwar from 2017 describing himself as a “brown, muslim guy with Pakistani parents”.
“Not only did I not use the words that I was accused of using, I’ve never heard that sentence‘ brown Muslim p-word’ in my life,” he said. “I was astonished to hear him using a similar sentence previous to accusing me.”
Mr Mclachlan added: “What council leader would ever say that directly to someone’ s face even if they did harbour those racist views – especially to someone who could be the next leader and their future boss? It’s been put tome so many times that maybe I said something that resembled that a wee bit. Well, the answer is categorically ‘No’.”
Mr Sarwar say she was informed of the hearing on 29 April four days earlier, then told on the day that he could not give evidence without two weeks’ notice.
The MSP said :“To falsely accuse me of lying is deeply upsetting but, as I told the party when it asked me to name the individual, this isn’t about one person.
“This is about challenging a wider culture and we have made great strides in the campaign against Islamophobia, which will remain my focus.”