Dundee Labour’s unchecked power in the 1970s and 80s allowed the corruption that saw party councillors jailed, senior MSP Michael Marra has said.
The shadow finance spokesman was speaking about Scottish Labour’s downfall in the city and the growing support for the SNP since the early 2000s.
Labour was the dominant political force in the City of Discovery for over five decades until the SNP finally gained control of the local authority in 2009.
It followed a series of corruption scandals involving Labour councillors.
Labour’s downfall in Dundee
Though their sentences were later quashed, three of the party’s councillors were jailed in the 1970s for corruption linked to the awarding of construction contracts.
In the 1990s, two Labour councillors, Raymond Mennie and Robert Pullar, were handed 12-month jail sentences after being found guilty of corruptly soliciting cash as an inducement to support a planning application.
Mr Marra told the Ponsonby and Massie podcast that the scandals, alongside the growing SNP support among Catholic voters in the city, were behind his party’s changing fortunes.
‘All dominant political parties become corrupted’
But the MSP added: “Many years ago there was a corruption in the Labour party in Dundee.
“All entirely dominant political parties become corrupted. You know, power does that. It becomes unchallenged.
“Frankly in many ways I think you see that in the SNP now, unchallenged power for too long corrupts them in different ways.
“I don’t mean on the money side, they become unaccountable to people so they start to do stupid things and irresponsible things.”
Mr Marra told The Courier there was “no doubt” financial corruption was once more possible and commonplace in local government.
He added: “That applied to those of all political colours. Too often a few individuals let down their colleagues by serving themselves instead of the people.”
The Courier contacted the SNP for comment.
