Anas Sarwar has blamed Glasgow City Council after one of his newest councillors was blocked from taking her seat after failing to quit her job with the authority. 

The Scottish Labour leader denied the looming by-election triggered by Mary McNab’s disqualification from office was a result of his party’s “gross incompetence.”

Earlier this week, The Herald revealed that last month’s vote in the Glasgow North East ward would need to be rerun after the carer fell foul of the Local Government Scotland Act, which bans councillors from also being council employees.

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The legislation gives the newly elected a working day to hand in their notice after her election.

Ms McNab had until midnight 23:59 on November 25 to quit.  However, she did not. Labour has still not explained why she did not.

Mr Sarwar was speaking to journalists while out campaigning in Glasgow’s West End ahead of the Partick East/Kelvindale by-election. 

Asked by The Herald why Ms McNab did not quit her job with the city council, Mr Sarwar said: “Look, I think the whole thing is, to be honest, an administrative mess. And, you know, I think there'll be lots of people in the council that feel disappointed.

"I think Mary herself will feel greatly disappointed. 

“I think many people in the local ward will feel really disappointed because this is someone who was desperate to serve the local community, someone who was elected by the local community, and we've allowed an administrative mess up on all sides, to mean that we now have another by-election there, which is really, really, deeply frustrating.

“And I think we could have worked in a way to resolve that, but we are in the situation we are in, and it's deeply, deeply frustrating.”

Asked if this was down to incompetence from Labour, given the legislation banning being both a councillor and a council employee has been in force for 20 years, Mr Sarwar said: “Well, I think you need to speak to Mary McNab and speak about the conversations that she was having with her employer, and the process that she was told to follow with her employer. 

“And I think there is probably some discrepancies on the advice she was given by her employer and the process that she followed, which meant, inadvertently, that there was a situation we now find ourselves in. 

“So I don't think this one's on the Labour Party, to be honest. I think there is a wider administrative issue here, which sadly means we're going to have a by-election, but I hope this can be resolved so a similar situation doesn't happen again for any political party.”

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Mr Sarwar added: “The SNP might want to make this political fight. They might want to talk about what happened in terms of there having to be another by-election. 

“I think what [the SNP leader of Glasgow City Council] Susan Aitken and the SNP should maybe focus on instead is actually running a competent administration, maybe not wasting the council's money, maybe fighting for a fair deal for Glasgow. 

“There's a budget this week. I hope she's arguing for a good deal for Glasgow. I suspect she's probably not. Maybe that should be a more appropriate focus for the council.” 

Responding to Mr Sarwar's comments, a spokesman for Glasgow City Council said that while Ms McNab had spoken to her line manager about the situation, neither she nor the party had spoken to the council's elections team or the chief executive. 

A spokesman said: “The council’s elections team issues guidance to all candidates and agents in advance of every election, on behalf of the Returning Officer – this includes the Electoral Commission’s guidance on when employees who are elected to local authorities are required to resign their positions.

“In this case, neither the candidate nor their party sought any further advice from the Returning Officer or from the council’s election team.

“It would not be legal or appropriate to discuss the details of any individual’s employment, without their consent. However, nobody would reasonably expect a line manager to offer specialist advice on election law.”

An SNP spokesperson said: "This is absolutely desperate stuff from Anas Sarwar. Is the man who wants to become Scotland’s first minister seriously suggesting that electoral law should be broken to cover up Labour’s shambolic incompetency?

"The SNP has been cleaning up the mess of Labour's shady backroom deals in Glasgow since we were elected in 2017.

"The people of Glasgow are yet again paying the financial price. Labour’s inability to follow simple instruction or take responsibility for their actions is 100% their fault.

"The branch office manager could, for once, show some humility and accept that."

Senior officials in the council have been taking legal advice over Ms McNabb as this is the first time a newly elected councillor has ever fallen foul of the law.  While confident in their position, given the lack of precedence, they have now applied to Sheriff Principal, Aisha Anwar, for a declarator, to get a definitive ruling on the law.

If, as expected, she agrees with the Council that Ms McNabb is no longer a councillor, it will trigger a rerun of the vote.  The council said the ballpark figure for a by-election was roughly around £80,000.

Some council sources believe the total cost of the affair - when legal fees have been added in - could be as much as £200,000.

Glasgow City Council has been approached for comment.