VOTE ROW TO GO ON ANON

Members of Scottish Labour fear system could penalise left-wingers Onlineservice already centre of Met police probe after tamper claims

- BY HANNAH RODGER Political Editor

SCOTTISH Labour members fear a controversial computer voting programme involved in a Met police fraud probe could be used to block left-wing candidates from standing as MSPs.

Anonyvoter, an online voting software, is being used by the party to pick candidates for the next general election, often alongside postal and in-person voting.

But the party has faced calls to ban the Anonyvoter system after it was criticised by unions and candidates who lost their reselections in favour of centrist candidates in the 2024 election.

Angela Rayner's former MP partner Sam Tarry and Welsh MP Beth Winter instructed lawyers to challenge the party over the system's usage, claiming it could be tampered with.

Both Tarry and Winter had received more votes from those who attended their selection contests in person but lost out to their rivals via the online system.

Tarry called for the party to stop using Anonyvoter and said it was "used to deselect me, rigged to change the result", while Winter called for a full investigation.

Now, several Scottish Labour sources have told the Sunday Mail they fear the same issues are happening in Scotland following a selection for the Dundee West constituency earlier this month.