Scottish Labour launch van branding SNP's record 'criminal'

The party’s deputy leader Jackie Baillie told LBC at a campaign event in Alva that she viewed the SNP’s record as “completely scandalous”.

It comes after we revealed how Anas Sarwar’s party was accused of using a “fake AI character” to try and drum up support on social media as Scottish Labour continues to plummet in the polls.

And, Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to face MPs in the Commons on Monday afternoon over the recent revelations around Peter Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the US.

READ MORE: Keir Starmer mocked as 'photo-op taken with WMD rather than Anas Sarwar' in Scotland

Starmer is under increasing pressure after it emerged that Mandelson failed vetting before being given the top diplomatic role. It also emerged on Monday that he was given clearance to view top secret material despite this.

But while Labour in Westminster is solely focused on if Starmer can survive the next 48 hours in Number 10 – Scottish Labour have continued to attack the SNP north of the Border.

A senior SNP source told The National the attack ad shows Scottish Labour does not have a positive campaign to run on its own and the party appears "desperate".

In an interview with LBC, Baillie pointed to treatment time guarantees being broken, climate change targets being missed, and the number of children living in poverty and temporary accommodation as she criticised the SNP’s record.

“The SNP’s record is completely scandalous and nothing short of criminal in my view,” she told the broadcaster.

“But it’s not just in government. If you look at the party, the party has also been mired in sleaze and scandal and what we’re seeing whether it’s the SNP in government or indeed in their party affairs is that they cover up, secrecy is paramount and they put party before country every single time.”

Certainly seems Scottish Labour is hoping so - party’s deputy leader Jackie Baillie on the campaign trail in Alva said the weekend revelations proved “secrecy and cover up at the heart of the SNP”
She was unveiling an ad van which read “the SNP’s record is criminal”
1/3 https://t.co/mlERTYplkz pic.twitter.com/zmAu0ZlCHL

— @GinaDavidson (@ginadavidsonlbc) April 20, 2026

Asked if Scottish Labour are being hypocritical given the recent controversy and secrecy around Starmer and Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the US, Baillie insisted that the election was not about Westminster or the Prime Minister.

“At the end of the day this isn’t about what the Prime Minister does or a UK Labour government,” she said.

“This election is about who runs Scotland, who's in charge of our hospitals, schools, police on the beat, all of these issues matter to the people of Scotland.”

READ MORE: Brian Cox urges Scots to 'vote for independence' in SNP campaign clip

When LBC’s Scotland Political Editor Gina Davidson pointed to Sarwar congratulating Mandelson when he got the ambassadorship, and calling the disgraced peer his “old friend”, and then asked how voters could trust the party, Baillie said: “At the end of the day Labour are the ones providing the opportunity for change in Scotland, it’s a Scottish Parliament election, it’s not about electing somebody elsewhere.

“The Prime Minister’s name is not on the ballot paper, Anas Sarwar’s is. This is about devolved issues.”

She added: “If they want to protest about Westminster, don’t do it in the Scottish Parliament elections, we’ve seen 20 years of decline, give us five years, we’ll make a difference to the country.”

Baillie also weighed in on the publication of several WhatsApp which allegedly show senior SNP figures “conspiring” against Alex Salmond .

The Sunday Mail reports that the messages were previously before a court but not shared publicly, and their publication led to renewed calls for a public inquiry to be held.

It comes as extracts from the upcoming memoir of former SNP MP Joanna Cherry – an ally of Salmond – also suggested there was a conspiracy against the former first minister.

“I think Joanna Cherry’s book demonstrates that the SNP are fighting like ferrets in a sack with each other,” Baillie said.

She added that as an MSP on the Scottish Parliament’s inquiry into the handling of the sexual harassment complaints against Salmond: “I certainly was not privy to see all of the WhatsApp messages that are now published in the papers, and that to me speaks to again the secrecy at the heart of the SNP and the party.

“Nothing is transparent and they basically put party before country each and every occasion.”

A senior SNP source told The National: "It's pretty courageous that the Labour Party are pushing this out at the same time as the House of Commons are meeting to discuss the Prime Minister's mishandling of the Mandelson links and the Labour peers' proximity to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein."