Scottish Labour has suspended its candidate for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy over “deeply offensive” tweets liked and shared by her account.
General Election hopeful Wilma Brown was slammed for appearing to like posts on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, which called Humza Yousaf the “First Minister of Gaza”.
An account under her name endorsed another tweet which referred to the SNP leader as “Hamas Yousless”, due to his support for ending the war in Palestine.
The account, which has now been deleted, also liked one post which claimed a former Tory candidate could “never be an Englishman” due to his Indian heritage.
The SNP claimed the tweets which had been liked were “racist” and challenged Labour leader Sir Keir to sack Ms Brown immediately.
Ms Brown did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by The Courier.
The Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy candidate, an activist with the Unison trade union, has previously been pictured alongside Sir Keir on the campaign trail.
The party’s Deputy Leader Keith Brown said: “The appalling tweets endorsed by the Labour Party candidate for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy are deeply offensive, racist and completely unacceptable.
“Wilma Brown is clearly unfit to be a candidate at the general election.
“Sir Keir Starmer must sack her immediately and explain why she was ever selected given her long and very public history of endorsing deeply offensive comments.”
“This is a candidate who Keir Starmer has personally endorsed and visited to campaign alongside. He must explain how this was allowed to happen.”
A Fife Labour source told us: “This is obviously unacceptable for any Labour representative and Wilma should do the right thing and allow another candidate to be selected.”
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints seriously.
“They are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate action is taken.”
The seat being contested by Ms Brown, currently named Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, is a key target for Labour at the next election.
It is currently held by Alba MP Neale Hanvey, who defected from the SNP in 2021.
He won the seat by just over 1,000 votes at the 2019 election, and it was held by Labour for two years prior to that.
