Alistair Darling has written to thousands of voters across Scotland urging them to back Scottish Labour with their second vote.
The former Labour chancellor who led the Better Together campaign during the 2014 referendum has warned pro-UK voters that backing the Conservatives with their second vote “won’t help stop the SNP”.
Darling’s letter is targeted at voters in Conservative-held seats with the former chancellor endorsing Sarwar as the leader of a changed Labour party.
With polling showing that one in seven Labour voters could use their second vote to back the Tories, the letter is a sign that Labour’s Anas Sarwar is worried about losing out to Tory Douglas Ross as the leader of the largest opposition party.
In his letter Darling reached out beyond Labour’s traditional voter base.
He said: You may not have voted Labour in the past, or you may have left us in recent years, but under Anas Sarwar’s leadership we have changed. If you want a country focused on what unites us, not what divides us, please use your second vote on the peach ballot paper for Anas Sarwar and Scottish Labour’s national recovery plan.”
Darling wrote: “Anas Sarwar shares your priorities. His uplifting election campaign has focused on a national recovery plan for Scotland, not re-running the arguments from 2014. He opposes independence and he opposes a second referendum. He will put the NHS, jobs, education, climate and communities first.”
“With a strong group of Labour MSPs behind him, he can spend the next five years standing up for a united Scotland and standing up to the SNP, keeping Nicola Sturgeon focused on recovery – not a referendum.”
Darling was a Labour MP for Edinburgh South West and Edinburgh Central for 18 years in what was considered a Conservative area of the city.
He stood down from the House of Lords last year and makes rare interventions in politics.
