PM should block Kerr candidacy after Gaza funding row, says Brown
Questions have been raised about the process of the award of £250,000 to a UN agency in Gaza.
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Your support makes all the difference.The Prime Minister has been urged to block a Scottish Tory MSP from running for Westminster after he raised questions about Scottish Government aid funding to Gaza.
The Scottish Government gave £250,000 to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in November last year.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Saturday that the decision to award the funding was made by First Minister Humza Yousaf, who it is claimed overruled official advice to award between £100,000 and £200,000 to children’s charity Unicef.
Stephen Kerr, quoted in the story, said the First Minister has a “clear conflict of interest” in awarding aid to Gaza given members of his wife’s family have been trapped in the territory since Israeli reprisals to the October 7 attacks began.
The First Minister’s in-laws were able to leave the country and return home to Scotland on November 3, while other members of the family later fled to Turkey.
As of mid-January, Nadia El-Nakla’s brother and elderly grandmother were still in the territory.
Mr Yousaf condemned the story as “Islamophobic”, and SNP depute leader Keith Brown has urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to step in to block Mr Kerr from running as a candidate in the next general election.
“Look at the article, look at the consequences of the article, look at what Stephen Kerr’s done, look at him smirking on TV yesterday knowing exactly the reaction he was going to get in relation to this,” Mr Brown said on BBC Radio Scotland on Monday.
“I think it’s a despicable way to go about their business.”
He added: “I don’t think Stephen Kerr is fit to be a candidate at the Westminster election.
“The Prime Minister should condemn the article and make sure Stephen Kerr is not allowed to stand as a Westminster candidate.”
The SNP MSP added “this hate and division has to stop”.
Asked if the First Minister should make clear the process behind the decision to award the aid, Mr Brown said: “It is clear – the Scottish Government provided £250,000 of support, they sought to take it through the UN, as many other governments did. What is the objection to that?”
He added: “Most people will see on TV the situation that there is in Gaza right now with people being killed, with huge crises in terms of people being fed, and they will be rightly concerned that the Scottish Government provides that support quickly.
“That seems to be a straightforward and decent thing to have done and it’s now being besmirched, both by this article in the Telegraph and by Stephen Kerr.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said: “The First Minister has questions to answer over why he chose to override official advice on which agency to award this public money to – especially as Keith Brown was unable to shed any light on it.
“As the SNP deputy leader himself said, it’s legitimate for these issues to be raised in parliament, which is why the Scottish Conservatives have requested a ministerial statement on the decision-making process.”