Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has said he wants Reform to get “absolutely pumped” at next month’s Holyrood election, as he again dismissed claims he had offered to work with Lord Malcolm Offord to oust the SNP.
Sarwar rejects deal claims
Speaking on BBC’s Question Time programme on Thursday, Sarwar said it was “nonsense” to suggest he would have offered a deal to a party that had spent thousands on adverts questioning his loyalty to Scotland. He also said there are “lots of families” across Scotland that are afraid of Reform’s politics, and called on voters to “utterly reject” the party on May 7.
“There are lots of families right now that are fearful of the prospect of Reform politics and Reform being anywhere near politics,” he said. “Let me ask Scotland to utterly reject Lord Malcolm Offord and Reform on May 7.”
Lord Offord's allegations
Lord Offord previously claimed Mr Sarwar had approached him while the pair were on an earlier episode of Question Time, which was being filmed in Paisley Town Hall. Asked about this by host Fiona Bruce, Mr Sarwar responded: “The idea that a Question Time green room, with six political parties, all the Question Time staff, is the place to have secret talks with Lord Malcolm Offord, who spent tens of thousands of pounds, his party, targeting me, saying I’m not even loyal to my own country Scotland, is utter nonsense.”
“Let’s make it really clear, I want Reform to get absolutely pumped in this election,” he added.
Lord Offord, who was sitting next to Mr Sarwar on the panel, proceeded to reiterate his claim the Scottish Labour leader had approached him. “I told the story that in the green room… just at the end, after Anas had lambasted me on the show, it was my first time on the show, and called me an odious man, etc, a very personal attack on me,” he said. “At the end of it you bounced up as if you were a long lost friend and said, ‘well, you’re going do very well in the election. We need to work together to beat the SNP.’”
Mr Sarwar responded: “I want you to get hammered. I want you to get utterly hammered.”
