The ongoing suspension of nine Labour candidates in Aberdeen will harm the party in elections, it has been claimed.
It has been reported that party chiefs at UK and Scottish level are at loggerheads over the issue, which has now been ongoing for more than two years.
The nine councillors were suspended from Labour by then leader Kezia Dugdale, following local elections in 2017, for forming a coalition with the Conservatives to run the council.
Now, going under the name Aberdeen Labour, the councillors – who include council co-leader Jenny Laing and Lord Provost Barney Crockett – have still to learn their fate.
A senior source claimed the impasse was hampering their selection of candidates in upcoming elections. Scottish leader Richard Leonard appointed his local government spokesman Alex Rowley to try and find a solution.
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But while Mr Rowley has met members of the group, the matter is now in the hands of a UK party disciplinary body. Labour previously shared power with the Conservatives at Aberdeen’s townhouse in the administration running from 2012 to 2017.
They were, however, then the senior partner and following the election of the left wing Jeremy Corbyn to the UK leadership, coalitions with the Tories have been discouraged.
A well placed Aberdeen Labour source said: “The most important thing is that it has now been two years and two months since the Labour members were suspended and we are still none-the-wiser.
“They must be taken back into the party as soon as possible to get campaigning about all the great things they are doing for the city and Richard Leonard must support this.
“The issue is hampering the party locally. There could be a general election at any point and there are Scottish elections in 2021.
“Some of the councillors may want to run in these elections and the nine members have years of campaigning experience behind them. It is crazy not to use that resource.”
A Scottish Labour spokesman declined to comment saying the party “did not provide a running commentary on compliance matters”.
Opposition SNP group leader Stephen Flynn, meanwhile, said: “Outsourcing the Beach Ballroom, increasing primary one class sizes and slashing funding for educational psychologists are anything but ‘great things’.
“If Richard Leonard is willing to condone such woeful decisions by ending their suspension then he’ll be signing away what very little credibility Labour has left.”
