Flynn urges Labour supporters to back SNP to defeat Ross

Mr Brown shared an article from Russian state media outlet RT in April 2018 which claimed the “toxin” used in the poisonings was “never produced in Russia, but was in service in the US, UK, and other Nato states”.

Mr Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster, has now written to Mr Sarwar to call on him to ask Labour supporters and members locally to back the SNP candidate Seamus Logan to beat Mr Ross "and help to ensure there is not a single Tory MP left in Scotland".

READ MORE: Scottish Labour candidate suspended over ‘pro-Russian’ post

Mr Ross, who is to stand down as Scottish Tory leader after the election, faced anger among his MSPs when party bosses de-selected former Scotland Office minister David Duguid as the candidate for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East while he was recovering in hospital from a spinal injury. 

Mr Duguid had insisted he wanted to stand. Tory MSPs were said to be furious with Mr Ross as he had previously said he would not be contesting a Westminster seat at the election and would be focusing on his role in Holyrood. 

“Of all the Tories who have shamed Scotland over the last five years of this UK Government, Douglas Ross has been the worst of all,"  said Mr Flynn.

“He has backed every disastrous Tory Prime Minister and every policy which has caused so much misery across Scotland.  Now he has topped it off by shamefully forcing out a colleague who was in a hospital bed in order to impose himself as the candidate in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East.

READ MORE: Hundreds of thousands of Scots set to vote tactically

“At this election we have the chance to give him the electoral defeat that he deserves – but that will need everyone who wants to see the Tories beaten to unite behind the SNP.

“With Labour not fielding a candidate in this crucial seat, I am calling on Anas Sarwar to make clear to his supporters and members locally that he backs a vote for the SNP to defeat Douglas Ross.

“This costs Anas Sarwar nothing.  If he refuses, it will lead to real questions about whether Labour would prefer to see their former Better Together allies winning seats over the SNP.

READ MORE: Jackie Baillie: Labour candidate's remarks 'stupid' and 'untrue'

“Douglas Ross has already been forced into resigning as leader of the Tories.  If he isn’t good enough for the Tories, he certainly isn’t good enough for the people of the North East of Scotland.

 “On Thursday, we have a chance to get rid of every Tory MP in Scotland by voting for the SNP to ensure Scotland's interests are always put first.”

Mr Sarwar later rejected the SNP offer - prompting criticism from Mr Flynn.

“With less than 48 hours to go, Anas Sarwar has completely blown apart his own campaign message," he said.

“For weeks he has been telling Scottish voters with a straight face that he wants to get rid of the Tories – but given a golden opportunity to actually get rid of the Scottish Tory Leader – the mask slips and he won’t lift a finger to help.

“It’s clear that the old ‘Better Together’ unionist alliance is still holding strong, and that Labour in Scotland are more interested in attacking the SNP than getting rid of Tory MPs."

The SNP upgraded the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East constituency into a key target seat since the row over Mr Ross standing as the candidate.

First Minster John Swinney has visited the seat three times while the party has injected extra resources into it. Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes will join the SNP's candidate in the constituency tomorrow.  

Mr Ross also faces a threat from Reform which is also standing in the seat.

Responding to Mr Flynn's intervention Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said: “Pro-UK voters in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East know that only the Scottish Conservatives can beat the SNP and end their independence obsession for good.

“This seat will be extremely close, and a vote for any party other than the Scottish Conservatives – including Reform, Labour or the Liberal Democrats – just increases the chances of the SNP sneaking in by the back door.

“The same applies in key seats up and down Scotland where it’s a head-to-head between the Scottish Conservatives and the SNP.”

Polls have suggested that Labour will win the election on Thursday and may also become the biggest party in Scotland ousting the SNP from seats in the central belt.

The forecasts have prompted SNP to step up attacks on Labour arguing a large Labour majority in Westminster would be damaging for Scotland.

Pollsters expect to see a rise in tactical voting on Thursday with amost one in four Scots ready to back their non preferred party in order to stop another party.

Last week Labour was under pressure to suspend its candidate in Aberdeen South Tauqueer Malik after he 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.

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie denied the party had done so and said the remarks by Mr Malik were "stupid and untrue".  Mr Malik was not suspended.

Dawn Sturgess, 44, died after being exposed to the nerve agent Novichok, which had been left in a discarded perfume bottle in Amesbury, Wiltshire, in July 2018.

It followed the attempted murders of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia and ex-police officer Nick Bailey, who were poisoned in nearby Salisbury in March that year.

All three survived, as did Ms Sturgess’s boyfriend, Charlie Rowley.

At the time of Mr Brown's suspension, it was too late to remove his name from the ballot paper. However, he will receive no further support from Labour and will be an independent candidate.

He described himself as a "centrist" Labour supporter and said he did not recognise the material and denied sharing it online.