Accusing Sarwar of sectarianism looks like a stupid error by Farage
A bitter dispute between Nigel Farage and Anas Sarwar including the hurling of insults about who was first to bring sectarian issues into the campaign looks like setting the tone for crucial by-election on June 5.
The evidence is pretty conclusive that Mr Farage's Reform UK started that war of words through his party's use of a three-year-old Labour campaign video which contained clips of Mr Sarwar in which it was said he claimed he would 'prioritise Pakistani voters'.
However, the Scottish Labour leader did not use the words he's accused of saying. He didn't use those words at all. What he said was that he wanted to see more people from the South Asian community getting involved in politics.
What was attributed to him in the campaign video was merely what Reform's campaign team thought he meant – or even what they might have liked him to mean. They attributed to him their interpretation of his views, ones they hope contrast with their instance that the voters of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse are their priority.
Labour colleagues of Mr Sarwar, as well as John Swinney, Scotland's First Minister and SNP leader, claimed Reform had introduced a sectarian element into the contest, one in which both Reform UK and Scottish Labour hope to win.
But in what his supporters may well describe as a competent and professionally delivered press conference the overall image was damaged by what looked like a stupid error by Reform – especially one so close to a crucial by-election that it has high hopes of winning.
They eventually admitted that Reform had attributed to the Scottish Labour leader words he hadn't used. But someone should have done that earlier.
In an attempt to repair things Mr Farage must have mystified the ranks of Fleet Street's finest at his press conference when he produced another clip of the aforesaid video, but without the offending words.
I can't imagine that many in the room had a clue what all of this Scottish stuff was about, but for the Reform leader it was complete vindication. After playing the clip, he said: 'So it was Anas Sarwar that introduced sectarianism into Scottish politics – making it perfectly clear his priority was to a certain section of the community.'
But that again is an interpretation – simply the Reform leader's opinion of Mr Sarwar's priority. It is not a proven fact.
For his part the Scottish Labour leader commented: 'This was a blatant attempt from Nigel Farage to try and poison our politics here in Scotland.'
The SNP candidate is favourite to win the by-election, caused by the death of a very popular and long serving minister. But Reform is said to be taking votes off both Labour and the SNP.
It would be incredible if Reform won, although Labour strategists claim that the Farage/Sarwar spat is harming the Reform candidate.
But then, they would say that, wouldn't they?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Keir Starmer is flushed with humility about where his portrait might be
Sir Keir Starmer is perturbed by something in Downing Street. In an interview published in this week's New Statesman, he walks along the pictures of past PMs and notes that Rishi Sunak is yet to take his place, but also that there doesn't seem to be any space for Starmer himself. 'Presumably,' he says, 'I'm in the downstairs bog.' It is a brave politician who confesses that his legacy is heading down the toilet, but the PM will be relieved (no pun intended) to hear that the portraits move down with each new arrival. 'It's quite a big operation,' says the historian Sir Anthony Seldon. 'Not too bad if they changed every five years, but seven in the last 15 has meant a lot of rearranging.' On the grapevine Sarah Vine's publicity tour for her memoir How Not To Be a Political Wife will reach its apotheosis at the end of the month when she appears on stage with her ex-husband Michael Gove for a Spectator event. The book has lit little fires throughout Notting Hill, and the event called 'Living With a Politician' should be the final conflagration. Also speaking is Hugo Swire, the ex-MP whose wife Sasha called Vine a whinger in The Sunday Times, while Vine herself called Hugo 'bumptious'. It promises to be a dignified occasion. Rachel Johnson is on the panel, despite not being married to a politician, and is worried by the advert for this event 'Will people think I'm married to Michael Gove?' she asks. The cognoscenti know that contingency to be a remote one. Common ground The Tories and Reform are not getting closer to an electoral pact, but they are getting nearer the dessert trolley. Lunchers at a Mayfair restaurant were turning heads every which way on Tuesday as the Tories' Robert Jenrick, David Cameron and George Osborne ate only feet away from Reform leader and people's champion Nigel Farage. He and his treasurer Nick Candy were with the former chief scout Bear Grylls, who later denied this was a recruitment chat. Watching from a third table was former Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, who felt the whole thing didn't live up to the description of Mayfair given by the 19th century wit Sydney Smith, who said it 'enclosed more intelligence and human ability, to say nothing of wealth and beauty, than the world has ever collected in such a space before'. There was a grand gathering at the Locarno Room in the Foreign Office as the permanent secretary at the Department for Transport Dame Bernadette Kelly held farewell drinks after eight years in post. The place was rammed with ex-colleagues, not least as Kelly had six secretaries of state in her tumultuous time. Rumours abounded about a five-figure catering bill which was footed by Kelly — though, as the woman who oversaw HS2, she's used to inflated budgets. No word on whether her party, unlike the rail route, went on to further destinations. A wealth of pain Thank you again for your exam howlers for which medicine, it seems, is fertile ground. Sandy McLennan proved this with his offerings. 'Gout is a disease of affluence,' one of his candidates wrote. 'Women rarely suffer from it.' Other pearls of wisdom he's read included 'urine is often made by the kidneys' and 'proteins are all different, some more so than others.'
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Newsom v Trump holds promise and peril for California governor
In a televised address on Tuesday night, California Governor Gavin Newsom accused President Donald Trump of a "brazen abuse of power". The Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts were terrorising his state's immigrant neighbourhoods, he said. "California may be first, but it clearly will not end here," he warned. "Democracy is under assault before our eyes."Newsom's speech was the latest salvo between the US president and the Democrat who heads America's most populous state. The clash between the two leaders presents a formidable challenge to the 57-year-old governor. But it also offers a political opportunity for a man whose term in office ends next year and has his own presidential ambitions."This is unquestionably an opportunity for Gavin Newsom," said Darry Sragow, a long-time California Democratic strategist. He adds, however, that as the state's governor, Newsom has an obligation to defend California - whether it's in his political interests or not."It's a call to duty," he has accused Newsom of being "grossly incompetent" and of failing to adequately respond as some of the Los Angeles protests turned violent. He's dusted off an earlier derisive nickname for the governor, "Newscum", and said on Tuesday that he believed arresting him would be a "great thing".According to media reports, the White House is considering whether to cut off federal aid to California, including billions of dollars of education grants."Gavin Newsom's feckless leadership is directly responsible for the lawless riots and violent attacks on law enforcement in Los Angeles," White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson said in a statement. "Instead of writing fundraising emails meant to score political points with his left-wing base, Newsom should focus on protecting Americans by restoring law and order to his state."Newsom called the arrest threat a step toward authoritarianism and said Trump's deployment of military personnel to secure federal buildings and protect immigration officials had inflamed protests that had been isolated and controlled."The rule of law has increasingly given way to the rule of Don," he said in his Tuesday night address. Hundreds arrested as calm returns to Los AngelesEverything we know about the demonstrationsVoters divided on Trump's LA protest crackdownTrump's deportation drive is perfect storm in city of immigrantsWhere else are people protesting in the US? Over the past few days, Newsom has become the face of a Democratic Party that has often struggled to present a clear and unified alternative to Trump's Republican administration on the national stage. The governor's set-piece speech, delivered in a suit while standing in front of California and US flags, received widespread press coverage and attracted well over a million views on assorted YouTube press team has also been active on social media, comparing Trump to the evil Emperor Palpatine from the Star Wars films. According to the Washington Post, the TikTok followers on his official governor's account have doubled to 897,000 in the past few days."There is a very real possibility that Newsom will come out of this with a significant and favourable national profile," Sragow said. He says that the more Newsom can outline a story of Trump against California - a state with whom the president has a very clear grudge - the better the chances for the governor to benefit."Don't make this into a mano-a-mano shootout between two gunslingers on the streets of Laredo," he and Newsom have always presented a contrast in stories and styles – the brash outer-borough New Yorker versus the polished San Francisco was elected to office in 2018, in the Democratic mid-term wave election that marked the first major voter pushback against Trump's first presidential term. He promised to make his state a counterpoint to Trump's national right-wing populism, but his political journey hasn't always been a smooth flirted with controversy during the Covid pandemic, as he backed aggressive lockdowns of public spaces – but gathered for a birthday celebration at a posh French restaurant in November 2020. His political opponents, sensing weakness, triggered a recall election in September 2021 – but Newsom won the vote by a comfortable margin. Newsom won re-election to a second four-year term in 2022 and became more involved in national Democratic politics, fuelling speculation that he harboured presidential ambitions. He became a high-profile surrogate for Joe Biden's re-election campaign and took to Fox News for high-profile debates with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who was at the time running for the Republican presidential nomination, in December Trump's re-election last November, Newsom made a noticeable tack to the political centre. He expressed new discomfort with transgender athletes in women's sports, called for curtailing health benefits for undocumented workers, and hosted conservative guests like former White House senior adviser Steve Bannon on his political podcast – provoking the ire of some in the Democratic January 2024, he toured the devastating fire damage in a Los Angeles suburb with Trump and pledged to work with the new Republican administration in recovery Los Angeles protests have brought a sudden and decisive end to that detente, as the two men square off across a deep political has frequently benefitted from having a political foil with which to contrast himself – whether it was Hillary Clinton in 2016, Nancy Pelosi in the latter years of his first presidential term or Joe Biden during his drive back to there are risks for Newsom in this fight – suspension of federal aid to California and the threat of arrest being just two notable ones – it is also a clash he seems more than willing to embrace.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
AP PHOTOS: Bruce Springsteen's Berlin concert
American rock star Bruce Springsteen, long a political opponent of President Donald Trump, performed before tens of thousands fans at a Berlin stadium where he denounced the U.S. administration as 'corrupt, incompetent and treasonous'.
