Labour candidate in Scotland suspended over ‘racist’ social media activity

Labour has suspended a parliamentary candidate pending an investigation after she was found to have liked and shared a number of “racist” and controversial social media posts.

Scottish Labour received reports over Brown’s social media on Tuesday night and the party suspended her the next day, it is understood.

The action taken marks a sharp contrast to the handling of the suspension of Azhar Ali, Labour’s candidate for the Rochdale byelection, who was forced to apologise after remarks he had made about Israel surfaced.

Brown, a Unison activist and NHS nurse, had also liked tweets suggesting Yousaf had complained that there were “too many white people in Scotland”.

In 2020, Yousaf, the then justice secretary, had taken part in a debate in Holyrood challenging racism after the murder of George Floyd.

“Some people have been surprised or taken aback by my mention on my social media that at 99% of the meetings that I go to, I am the only non-white person in the room,” he said in a speech.