SCOTTISH Labour ’s General Election campaign was in chaos last night after they were forced to ditch two of their candidates. Incredibly, it now means the party have lost three of their candidates in less than a fortnight.
On Wednesday night, the party moved to deselect Frances Hoole in a row over a “threatening” tweet about her rival in Edinburgh South West, the SNP’s Joanna Cherry.
And last night Kate Ramsden, Labour’s General Election candidate in Gordon, quit after it emerged she likened Israel’s government to a child abuser.
Last week, Hoole shared a crudely mocked picture of her holding a bottle of Cillit Bang pointing towards a decapitated Cherry, with the words “Bang and the Terf is gone”.
READ MORE: Labour drops candidate for 'naive' tweet about Joanna Cherry
Cherry shared the image, tweeting: “Earlier this year I received a death threat & a storm of misogynistic abuse for defending #womensrights. The @scottishlabour candidate standing against me in #EdinburghSouthWest thinks it’s funny. I hope she will apologise & engage in respectful debate #GE19.”
Following the outrage Hoole, who was a graduate of Labour’s Jo Cox leadership programme, deleted the tweet, saying she didn’t “perceive” the image as a threat. When The National asked Labour boss Richard Leonard on Wednesday if he thought Terf was an acceptable term for a candidate to use, he replied “No”.
A few hours later the party’s Executive Committee decided to remove her as the candidate.
In a blog post uncovered by the Jewish Chronicle, Ramsden wrote: “To me the Israeli state is like an abused child who becomes an abusive adult.”
The paper said she added: “Like child abuse it has to stop... as we intervene with child abusers the international community needs to intervene with Israel.”
She also reportedly alleged that anti-Semitism claims against Jeremy Corbyn were “orchestrated by the wealthy establishment”.
Last month the party deselected Bill Curran in Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross. He claimed Labour had been “too apologetic” on anti-Semitism.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel