Suspended job candidate claims he was ‘hanged out to dry’

A candidate suspended by the Labor Party after reports he shared “pro-Russian” material online has denied it and claimed he was “hanged out to dry”.

The party took action against Andy Brown over a 2018 article by Russian state media RT questioning Russia’s involvement in the Salisbury nerve agent poisonings.

A separate shared post from the same time appeared to downplay allegations of anti-Semitism within the Labor Party.

Brown, who stands for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, insisted he would never support such views and suggested his Facebook account may have been hacked.

Labor took swift action against Brown, suspending him pending an investigation, after reports of the posts appeared in the Press and Journal newspaper.

The party’s shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said Labor would not tolerate people who did not reflect its values.

“We will not stand with people who share pro-Russian sentiments – these are not Labor values ​​and that is why he was quickly suspended from the Labor Party.”

Scottish Labor leader Anas Sarwar said the party showed leadership by acting quickly and suspending Brown.

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

British authorities believe the intended target was former Russian spy Sergei Skripal.

A joint RT article stated that the “toxin” used in the poisonings “was never produced in Russia but was used in the US, UK and other NATO countries.”

Brown’s Facebook account, also in mid-April 2018, also shared a quote from a Jewish historian about allegations of anti-Semitism in the Labor Party.

It said that “the real problem… is that right-wing Jews within the Labor Party and outside the party object to the fact that Jeremy Corbyn is a consistent supporter of Palestinian rights.”

However, Brown, who described himself as a “centrist” Labor supporter who was not a Corbyn supporter, said he did not recognize the materials and denied sharing them online.

He told BBC News: “I didn’t share them. Where they were shared from, or how someone accessed my account and shared them, it could have been corrupted at some point – but honestly, I didn’t share them.”

Pressed on whether he might have forgotten to share them, he insisted: “No, I definitely didn’t. I wouldn’t like it at all. That’s not the kind of comment I would make.”

“Shocking Treatment”

Brown said the party did not contact him to ask for an explanation before suspending him from the election.

“No one checked it. It’s quite shocking that I was treated this way. I was basically hung out to dry,” he said.

It is now too late to remove his name from the ballot, but his suspension means he will receive no further support from Labor and will stand as an independent candidate.

The other candidates are Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, Seamus Logan of the SNP, Ian Bailey of the Liberal Democrats and Jo Hart of Reform UK.

During Wednesday’s presentation of the SNP manifesto, party leader John Swinney was asked about a report that an SNP candidate once questioned President Assad’s responsibility for chemical attacks in Syria.

Swinney said he had no doubt that “the Assad regime has carried out chemical attacks in Syria,” but he would need to review the candidate’s comments before he could determine whether any action was required.

The election candidate thrown out by the Labor Party due to pro-Russian posts on social media defended it several times.

Andy Brown, described as a “local legend” by Labor supporters in Aberdeenshire, was a candidate in the 2021 Scottish Parliament and 2022 council elections, as well as the Scottish Executive by-election.

Each of these competitions took place after he made social media posts that now got him in trouble.

Despite being suspended pending an investigation, Brown’s name will still appear on the ballot paper alongside the Scottish Labor logo.

But the seat of Aberdeenshire North and Moray East was never going to be a Labor victory.

It is largely a two-horse race between the Conservatives and the SNP. This is a new constituency following boundary changes, but calculations based on previous results in this area suggest Labor won just over 4%.