A Labour councillor cleared of making alleged racist comments to MSP Anas Sarwar said they did discuss abuse based on his ethnic background.
Documents from the party’s disciplinary hearing, seen by the Record, reveal details of a phone conversation between Davie McLachlan and Sarwar when the MSP was running for party leader.
Sarwar later accused McLachlan of saying Scotland is not ready to back a “brown, Muslim Paki”. McLachlan strenuously denied the allegation and was cleared last Monday by the party’s three-member disciplinary panel.
The South Lanarkshire councillor insisted they only discussed politics then accused Sarwar of lying. But documents including an interview transcript show race was discussed.
McLachlan is quoted as saying: “We discussed his perception by the electorate. We also discussed the abuse received by Anas due to his ethnicity.” Later in the same document, McLachlan said there was no discussion of challenges that might arise from Sarwar’s background.
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He said: “We only discussed politics, such as whether Anas would support Jeremy Corbyn.”
He added: “I never made any comments about Anas’s race or the colour of his skin. I have never heard the words ‘brown, Muslim P-word until I was accused of saying them.”
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The two Labour colleagues spoke on the phone in late 2017 when Anas was running to lead the party in Scotland.
The complaints process took more than a year. Sarwar was given four days notice of the final hearing, held in Glasgow last Monday. The allegations were thrown out with “no case to answer”.
Sarwar said: “To falsely accuse me of lying is deeply upsetting, but as I told the party when it asked me to name the individual, this has never been about one person. It’s about challenging a wider culture of Islamophobia, which will remain my focus.”
The Record made a number of attempts to contact McLachlan but he was unavailable for comment last night.
