Labour suspends general election candidate standing in Gordon Brown's former seat over racism row

Labour has suspended its general election candidate vying to win back Gordon Brown's former seat after she was accused of sharing numerous racist posts on social media.

Wilma Brown appears to have liked offensive tweets, including one which branded Scottish leader Humza Yousaf the "first minister of Gaza" and another that claimed money sent to the Palestinian territory by Scotland’s Government was for terror group Hamas.

One tweet she allegedly liked branded migrants “ungrateful” and another post showed a man of Indian origin wearing an England flag under the caption: "You will never be an Englishman".

The Unison activist also appeared to share posts which suggested that Mr Yousaf complained that there are "too many white people in Scotland".

Scottish Labour on Wednesday confirmed that Ms Brown, who had been selected to run in Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, was suspended from the party pending an investigation.

Ms Brown deleted her Twitter account after the allegations, first reported by the Daily Record, came to light.

But screenshots had already been widely circulated online.

A party spokesman said: "The Labour party takes all complaints seriously.

"They are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate action is taken.”

Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, which was former Labour PM Gordon Brown’s constituency, is a key target for Labour and leader Sir Keir Stamer has

The party lost the seat to the Scottish National Party by 1,243 votes in 2019.

Current MP Neale Hanvey defected from the SNP to Alex Salmond’s Alba Party in 2021.