Jackie Baillie has said comments made by a Labour candidate that the party secretly supported the Conservative campaign in a seat in the north east in the last general election are "completely untrue".

The Scottish Labour deputy leader hit out after the party's candidate in Aberdeen South Tauqueer Malik was captured on footage caught by a Ring doorbell telling a voter the party secretly supported the Tories in Aberdeen South in 2019 in a bid to defeat the SNP.

"First of all it's completely untrue," she told The Herald.

"We fight for every single vote in every single seat. I don't advocate Labour voters voting for anybody else. It was untrue and a very stupid thing to say.

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"I've seen what's been on video. What I am saying to you is is that's it completely untrue, that is not something we as a party would do or would suggest that people would do. We fight for every single seat and every single vote.

"It was a very stupid thing to say. I am not questioning what he is saying, but what I am saying to you is that Labour's position is not that.

"We fight for every single vote in every single seat."

Asked if Labour would suspend Mr Malik, she replied: "No, people say all sorts of things. We are not going to suspend him. This is not something that was a breach of the rules or anything like that. It was a stupid thing to do, and it's not true."


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During the doorstep conversation, the voter, who said he would back the Conservatives’ John Wheeler, was told that Labour deliberately fumbled their 2019 campaign when the party was led by Jeremy Corbyn so as to give the Tory bid a boost.

Mr Malik also reminisced about working with Mr Wheeler while they were in coalition with the Tories on Aberdeen City Council. That arrangement led to the then-Scottish Labour leader suspending Mr Malik along with other colleagues dubbed the Aberdeen Nine.

In the footage, Mr Malik called the Conservative candidate Mr Wheeler “my friend” but urged the voter to back him to stop the SNP winning the seat. 

He said: “If you’d like to get rid of SNP, then please vote for me, although John is my good friend, we had a wonderful relationship when working together, I was hoping that he can win it because when we were coalition partner we had brilliant times, especially myself and Douglas Lumsden.

“But think about it, because the reason is we want to get rid of SNP.”

Mr Lumsden – the Tory candidate in 2019 – came second and was later elected as a Tory MSP for the North East region.

In the video, Mr Malik added: “When Douglas was candidate, Douglas Lumsden, in 2019 we did not bother, Labour did not bother at all, we were hoping that Douglas would make it.

“That’s why Labour had only 3000, because we did not do anything.”

The revelation will fuel SNP attacks on Labour that they are indistinguishable from the Conservatives.

The SNP Depute Leader, Keith Brown MSP, has written to Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said today saying if he has 'any authority and integrity', he will remove Mr Malik as a Labour candidate in Aberdeen South immediately.

In the letter to Mr Sarwar, the SNP Depute Leader wrote: "it was revealed that a Labour Party candidate endorsed the Tories to win in 2019.

"Let's be clear what that means: a current Labour candidate in Scotland was campaigning behind the scenes to herald in a Boris Johnson Tory government.

"This video footage is firm evidence that under your leadership, Labour in Scotland are in collusion with the Tories - no matter the consequences for Scotland.  Clearly your claim that the Labour Party wants to remove the Tories is now in tatters.

"As the main challenger to the Tories, the SNP has the chance to remove every Tory MP in Scotland and put Scotland’s interests first. It's a sad indictment of the Labour Party that it was fighting to save those very same Tories.

"We also know this is not an isolated incident. In the Tory held seat of Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, the Labour Party has no candidate and across all Conservative-held seats in Scotland you are sending Labour activists elsewhere.

"In every corner of Scotland, the SNP is working to remove Tory MPs from office but it is clear the same cannot be said of Labour. Your party is at best absent, and at worst complicit, in an attempt to help the Tories return Scottish seats.

"If you have any authority and integrity, you will remove the Labour candidate in Aberdeen South immediately.

"A failure to do so will be an admission Labour are working to return Tory seats in Scotland again on 4th July."