Labour suspends Aberdeen North and Moray East candidates over ‘pro-Russian’ and ‘right-wing Jewish’ posts

The Scottish Labour Party has suspended one of its candidates for a key constituency after reports emerged that he made social media posts downplaying Russia’s involvement in the Salisbury poisoning.

The BBC reports that Andy Brown, who is running in Aberdeenshire North and Moray East, shared an April 2018 article by Russian state media outlet RT claiming that the “toxin” used in the poisonings “was never made in Russia but was in use in the US, UK and other NATO countries”.

Dawn Sturgess, 44, died in July 2018 from exposure to the nerve agent Novichok, which was left in a discarded perfume bottle in Amesbury, Wiltshire.

It followed the attempted murders of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, his daughter Yulia and former police officer Nick Bailey, who were poisoned in nearby Salisbury in March of that year. All three survived, as did Ms Sturgess’s friend Charlie Rowley.

The Metropolitan Police identified three suspects wanted in connection with the poisonings: Denis Sergeev, Alexander Mishkin and Anatoliy Chepiga, who used the code names Sergey Fedotov, Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov in the UK.

That same month, according to the Press and Journal, Brown also quoted a Jewish historian as saying: “The real problem … is that right-wing Jews inside and outside the Labour Party object to Jeremy Corbyn being a consistent supporter of Palestinian rights.”

A Scottish Labour Party spokesman said: “Andy Brown has been suspended from the Labour Party pending the outcome of the investigation.

“We have taken the decision to withdraw our support from a parliamentary candidate during a parliamentary election.

“Anas Sarwar and Keir Starmer transformed the Labour Party and said every candidate and MP would work to the highest standards. This action shows they meant it.”

Brown will still appear on the ballot paper as a Labour candidate as the nomination deadline has passed, meaning that if elected on July 4, he will stand as an independent.

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves praised the move to distance herself from the candidate.

Speaking to television on Wednesday, she said: “I had never heard of this guy until this morning and I’m very, very glad that I hopefully won’t have to hear from him again as he has been suspended as a Labour candidate.”

“That is absolutely right. We reacted quickly.

“As soon as these postings came to light, we got rid of him.”

The Aberdeenshire North and Moray East constituency has been in the news in recent weeks after Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross reneged on his promise to step down from Westminster to take up the candidacy of former MP David Duguid, who had been in hospital for some time.

The backlash led Ross to announce that he would step down as party leader after the July 4 election.

A full list of candidates for the parliamentary elections can be found here.

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