Labour has mocked “weird nationalist disinformation” after a fake news report alleged Anas Sarwar had criticised Billy Connolly.
A crudely made screenshot of a nonexistent news website was widely shared on social media today despite it being an obvious fake.
The low-resolution image attributed a false quote to the Scottish Labour leader, claiming he had branded the legendary comedian “vulgar and offensive”.
It is not known who made the poor quality graphic – but it was enough to fool dozens of users on Elon Musk’s X platform.
A Scottish Labour source told the Record: “This kind of weird nationalist disinformation is as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit”.
In reality, Sarwar is a long-term fan of Connolly. He previously described attending the City Chambers on the occasion the Anderston-born comedian was awarded the Freedom of Glasgow.
“There is no better storyteller,” Sarwar said in 2022. “The deliberate going off into tangents and then coming back to the running story is just amazing. Best comedian I have ever had the pleasure to see in the flesh.”
Connolly was a long-term supporter of the Labour party but more recently described himself as a “utopian socialist”.
Speaking on a 2020 BBC documentary, the former Partick resident did not rule out supporting independence in the event of an IndyRef2.
The comedian, who has been a vocal opponent of Scottish independence in the past and refused to attend the opening of the Scottish Parliament, describing it as a “joke”, said: “I think a Scottish republic is as good an idea as I’ve ever heard but I don’t represent anybody or anything and I don’t think it is wise to.
“I’ve never liked nationalism in any of its guises. I’m not saying I have never agreed with independence. I don’t like Scottish nationalism very much. It is based on a loose idea about politics.
“I’m a utopian socialist. I think it is time for everybody to get together.
“My politics changed daily. I used to be a Labour man as every other party represents selfishness for one or other classes of people. As far as the Labour Party was concerned it represented a broader idea.
“It was fairness I was looking for but then I got talking to a Labour politician, a woman from Anderston, where I was born. She told me she was born there too and then she started to try to out-slum me saying, ‘My slum was worse than your slum,’ – you know that thing that Labour politicians do. I find it pathetic.”
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