‘Idiotic’ for John Swinney to attack other groups as ‘dodgy’, Anas Sarwar says

Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney has been branded “idiotic” for attacking a Labour organisation as “dodgy”.

Anas Sarwar said it was also “idiotic” for the SNP to attack other parties over their donations.

The Scottish Labour leader said the First Minister’s party had “huge questions to answer themselves” after it criticised Scottish Labour for accepting money from a think tank which was later accused of investigating the personal and religious background of a journalist.

The comments from Mr Sarwar come after details of the charges against Peter Murrell, the former SNP chief executive, emerged, including accusations he embezzled £459,000 from the party.

The 61-year-old – formerly married to Nicola Sturgeon – is alleged to have used the money to buy items including a motorhome and luxury goods, and towards the purchase of two cars. He is yet to enter a plea.

On Tuesday, Culture Secretary Angus Robertson urged Mr Sarwar to hand back the around £100,000 worth of donations to Scottish Labour MPs by the think tank Labour Together in 2024. He described the cash as “murky”.

The Labour group, which helped get Sir Keir Starmer elected as Labour leader, reportedly commissioned a probe that investigated the background of a journalist which included information about his Jewish beliefs.

Labour minister Josh Simons, who previously headed up the group, is being investigated by the Cabinet Office. The MP said said the group tasked with investigating the sources of a story had “gone beyond” what they were asked to do.

The First Minister previously described Labour Together as a “dodgy organisation” that was “propping up the Labour Party”.

Speaking to the Press Association in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, the leader of Scottish Labour criticised the SNP leadership and defended a Labour spokesman who called the Culture Secretary an “idiot”.

Mr Sarwar said: “I do think it’s idiotic of the SNP to be attacking other political parties about donations, or indeed the leader of the SNP calling other organisations dodgy organisations, when they have huge questions to answer themselves.

“I don’t think this is solid ground for the SNP, so I suggest they move on to other areas.

“But they’d rather talk about anything but the record – and that’s what I’m going to focus on is ensuring that over the course of the next three months we remove this useless, dishonest and failing SNP government from office, and only I can do that if people vote for us on May 7.”

Mr Sarwar earlier told reporters during his conference, on Labour’s plans for primary care in Scotland, it was “right” that the Prime Minister ordered an investigation into a Labour group, saying he had “deeply concerned” by the reports about the group.

He added: “I think it’s a bit rich for the SNP to be talking about the finances and the donations of any other political party, to be frank, and when I heard John Swinney talking about dodgy organisations, I thought was very, very brave territory indeed.”

In response, Pete Wishart, the SNP’s deputy Westminster leader, said it was Mr Sarwar’s “prerogative” to “throw insults at the SNP” but said it “won’t stop questions being asked about his poor judgment and his own role in these Labour Party scandals”.

He added: “Mr Sarwar is desperately hoping the Scottish media will ‘move on’ from his role in the scandals around Labour Together, and his links to Peter Mandelson, but there are serious questions that need to be answered on why he took over £100,000 in cash from this murky, scandal-hit organisation despite knowing it had broken the law more than 20 times over undeclared donations.”