GREATREX MUST CONFIRM OR DENY LEAKING ROYAL PATHS CORRESPONDENCE - REPORT

GREATREX MUST CONFIRM OR DENY LEAKING ROYAL PATHS CORRESPONDENCE - REPORT

“LABOUR HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO SUSPEND HIM AS CANDIDATE IF HE DID”

The Scottish National Party said that Tom Greatrex, Labour candidate in Rutherglen and Hamilton West, must in light of a media report this morning “immediately confirm or deny” that he was the person who leaked correspondence to the media in January between the Home Office and the Scottish Government regarding the designation of footpaths in the Cairngorm National Park Authority.

If Mr Greatrex was the leaker, the SNP said that Labour would have “no choice” but to suspend him as a candidate – in the same way as a Tory candidate in Ayrshire was suspended yesterday.

Mr Greatrex was a Special Adviser to Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy at the time, and today’s Scottish Sun newspaper reports that: “Whitehall sources outed Tom Greatrex – now standing as Labour candidate in Rutherglen, Glasgow – as the mole after a three-month probe by the Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell.”

On Monday, Scottish Government External Affairs Minister Fiona Hyslop published a Parliamentary Answer which said that it had been, “established conclusively that the source was not a Scottish Government civil servant”.

Stewart Hosie, the SNP’s election campaign co-ordinator, said:

“This is an extremely serious issue, and Mr Greatrex must immediately confirm or deny the report that he leaked this correspondence. If he did, Labour have no choice but to suspend him as a parliamentary candidate.

“It was the Home Office Minister who, quite rightly, made the point that the police wished as little attention as possible for the paths, and we now have a report that it was a Special Adviser to Jim Murphy and a Labour Party candidate in Scotland who was responsible for this disgraceful leak.

“The position is a very straightforward and urgent. If Mr Greatrex was not responsible, he must deny it. And if he was, he must be removed as the Labour Party candidate in Rutherglen and Hamilton West.”