Scottish Labour mocked as 'coming around to co-operative politics' as attack lines shared in advance of debate

Scottish Labour’s entire strategy for a coming Holyrood debate on the retrofitting of homes was accidentally leaked to hundreds of parliamentary staff in an embarrassing error.

An email from a parliamentary staff was accidentally sent to every member of staff in Parliament, regardless of party affiliation, leading to jibes about Labour’s inability to keep its attacks to itself.

The error comes just over a month after Labour’s response to the Scottish Budget was found lying around in the Donald Dewar Room in Holyrood.

Scottish Labour accidentally shared its attack lines for a debate in Holyrood.

That sparked the SNP labelling their attacks “desperate stuff”, with other parties saying Anas Sarwar’s team had turned into a party of “fortune tellers”.

The new briefing paper, seen by The Scotsman, lists Scottish Labour’s top lines in Tuesday’s debate about the retrofitting of homes to help the Scottish Government and Scotland hit its net-zero targets in emissions.

They include the suggestion that Government plans have sent a “shiver of panic through householders”, and claim the Scottish Green co-leader and government minister, Patrick Harvie, has “no idea” how people will meet the cost.

In a section titled ‘SNP/Green attack’, the document labels the plans “just like the fire alarm fiasco, but on a larger scale’, referring to the change in the law around interlinked fire alarms in homes.

The briefing continues, with Labour set to attack the SNP/Green administration for failing to allocate enough resources in a way that they say will put an “unbearable burden” on social housing tenants’ rents.

One parliamentary source joked they were glad Mr Sarwar’s party had come around to “co-operative politics”.

They told The Scotsman: “I’m glad that Scottish Labour have finally come around to the idea of more co-operative politics and hope they continue sharing their attack lines in advance.”

In December, the attack lines against the Budget branded it a “wasted opportunity” and “just a rehashing of old ideas” when it was discovered lying around Holyrood the day before finance secretary Kate Forbes stood up to present it to Parliament.

The SNP said it was “desperate stuff” for the Scottish Labour leader to have developed a fixed view of the Budget before it had been announced.

A Labour spokesperson said: “You don’t need a crystal ball to know the SNP are failing people as energy prices rise.

"Thanks to whoever forwarded it on to The Scotsman for the free coverage of SNP failures.”

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