Nicola Sturgeon’s arrest is “coming up constantly” on the doors in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, Anas Sarwar has said.
The Scottish Labour leader also told journalists that voters in South Lanarkshire constituency were telling him that the SNP “had lost its way” and that they saw Humza Yousaf as a “demotion” from his predecessor.
The Glasgow list MSP was speaking as Sir Keir Starmer made his first visit to the seat since voters ousted former SNP MP Margaret Ferrier in a recall petition.
The leader of the opposition told activists gathered in Rutherglen Town Hall that the SNP was "imploding."
READ MORE: Starmer says Labour could implement rape clause 'more fairly' than Tories
The SNP has been rocked by a number of arrests related to a police investigation into the party's finances and funding.
Detectives are currently investigating if the party misspent £660,000 raised specifically for Indyref2.
In April, Ms Sturgeon's husband, Peter Murrell, the former chief executive was arrested, and police carried out a search of the couple's house.
They also seized a £110,000 luxury motorhome from outside the Fife house of Mr Murrell’s elderly mother.
SNP treasurer Colin Beattie was arrested on April 18 and Ms Sturgeon was arrested on June 11.
All three were released without charge, pending further investigation after being questioned by detectives.
At the 'in conversation' event in Rutherglen, Sir Keir said that the by-election — expected in early October — would be an “important step” for Labour ahead of the next general election.
"And for all us absolutely committed to a majority Labour government - that will only happen if we win Scotland. So it really, really matters we win this constituency as a stepping stone to the battle we will have into next year."
READ MORE: SNP depute calls Fergus Ewing 'extremists' claim 'absurd'
Sir Keir said it would be the “first chance” Scottish Labour has had to “show the progress that we’ve made over the last few years, particularly under Anas’s leadership.”
“When I think about where we were as a party when Anas took over to where we are now, it is like night and day, so this is our chance to show the progress that we have made and to expose the fact that the SNP have effectively run out of road.
"It’s not just that they’ve imploded, they’ve run out of road. That’s why they are getting personal, that’s why they are making the arguments they are.
"If they had a good sound argument they wouldn’t be saying what they are saying."
Asked if Operation Branchform was being raised by voters, Mr Sarwar said: “It’s coming up constantly. I think the sense coming on the doors is that the SNP has lost its way, that we've had a demotion in terms of the person that's in charge of Bute House and the Scottish Government and that people recognise that we need change.”
He said Labour still had work to do to persuade voters. “We’ve persuaded them why these two parties deserve to lose. We're working on persuading them why we deserve to win and that's what we're focused on in this by-election.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel