Sarwar in 'unequivocal' apology over made-up quote

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has given an "unequivocal apology" after a party leaflet was delivered to homes with a made-up quote from a maternity campaigner.

Claire Fleming spoke out after her picture and a quote criticising NHS provision was posted out in Glasgow.

Fleming is quoted on the leaflet saying: "Local NHS services have deteriorated under SNP. Waiting lists are too high but these aren't just numbers on a bit of paper, these are people's lives. Anas Sarwar and Scottish Labour will fix our NHS."

She told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme: "Not a single thing that is written there is anything I have ever said."

Fleming, who lives in Glenluce, Dumfries and Galloway, is part of a campaign to reinstate maternity services in Stranraer.

There have been no deliveries at the birthing centre in Galloway Community Hospital since 2018, due to staff shortages.

Instead families face a 70-mile trip to Dumfries to access maternity services.

She said she was asked to record a video about the issue after meeting Sarwar in Stranraer last September.

They appear to have taken a still image from the video but she said the quote they used was not something she said.

"I was angry at first," she added. "Then I was a bit disappointed because I think I feel like when I'm talking about the maternity services, which is such an important subject for me, that it gets kind of forgotten about.

"I really had felt that day that we had made some progress and people were listening to us. And now I think maybe it was just for their own political gain."

She said she has complained to the party and they blamed an "admin error".

The campaigner added that the party have told her that steps have been taken to ensure no more of the incorrect leaflets are distributed.

Speaking to the media at Holyrood, Mr Sarwar apologised to Ms Fleming and said "it shouldn't have happened".

He said: "Look, unequivocal, in terms of an apology. It shouldn't have happened. A mistake made by a member of the team for which, of course, I take responsibility and unequivocally apologise to her, and I'll be doing that in writing as well."

Speaking in the chamber, First Minister John Swinney referred to the leaflet in response to Mr Sarwar's criticism over the recent Scottish Budget.

He said: "I do not think today is the day for Mr Sarwar to be in a strong position to accuse me of talking rubbish because this morning, a campaigner, a health campaigner, has raised the fact publicly that she has requested from Mr Sarwar a formal apology after a campaign leaflet, which I have in front of me, was posted to thousands and thousands of homes around the country with a false quotation in support of his party in the leaflet.

"And the campaigner who was falsely quoted asked a fair question: if they have written that out of nowhere, what else have they lied about?"