Labour candidate sacked after Twitter rants
A Scottish Labour candidate has been forced to step down after attacking prominent figures with “gutter” language on his Twitter page.
Scottish secretary Jim Murphy sacked Stuart MacLennan, who was the PPC for Moray, after the Sun newspaper reported he had called Labour MP Diane Abbot a “f****** idiot” and Commons Speaker John Bercow a “t**”.
Party leaders did not escape either, with the Conservatives’ David Cameron labelled a “t***” and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg called a “b******”.
Last night he apologised and said he had “let himself down” in a statement. Following sustained pressure from the Conservatives Labour eventually bowed to their demands.
“Stuart MacLennan has been sacked as Labour’s candidate for Moray for the totally unacceptable language which he has expressed online,” a Labour party spokesperson said.
“On reading the comments in full, the Scottish Labour party was outraged by their content and Scottish Labour’s general secretary took the decision to suspend his membership of the Labour party. Stuart MacLennan is no longer a Labour party candidate nor eligible to hold office as a Labour party representative.”
Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie had said Mr MacLennan should stand down “if he has any shred of remorse or decency”.
She suggested Mr MacLennan’s case was not unusual.
“Labour have run a repugnant and desperate campaign so far, twisting the truth and using fears and smears to scare the most vulnerable people in our society,” she commented.
“This candidate’s behaviour is entirely consistent with this type of campaign.”
And shadow Cabinet member Sayeed Warsi went further. She said: “Stuart MacLennan’s comments are highly offensive, especially to ethnic minorities, elderly people and women.
“Yet Ed Balls, Andy Burnham, Ben Bradshaw and John Prescott, among other senior Labour figures, all followed his tweets without raising a note of protest.”
Mr MacLennan had been campaigning against the Scottish Nationalist party’s Westminster leader Angus Robertson, who took over 36% of the vote in 2005. Labour came third in the seat at the last election, with the Tories in second.
