Scotsman, 2nd November, 1976 (Extract)

Uncorrected machine reading. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected. Its title and byline were read from the scan. Expect misread words. Quote from the scan, not from this page.
How this article was cut and titled: article areas, title and byline read from the scan (scottish-socialist/regions/ss-special-1976-11.tsv); uncorrected Apple Vision OCR; scan supplied by the user from their own collection (Scottish Socialist.zip, 28 Oct 2026), not online.

[page 2]

One of the leading members of the disbanded branches, Mr. John Nair, of Cumbernauld, said yesterday that Mr. Sillars would be faced with more trouble when Congress was reconvened soon to complete the agenda interrupted by the split.

Mr. Nairn said that "numberous branches" would raise the cause of the disbanded branches. There would have to be more expulsions until Mr. Sillars was left with a "South Ayrshire Labour Party."

Disbanded branches and their supporters claim that they now form the legitimate Scottish Labour Party. Attacking the expulsions, Mr. Nair said: "This decision was by the platform without the congress being allowed to hear the evidence against the branches or individuals and without individuals being named. And there was no right of reply."

A Conservative motion in the House of Commons, tabled yesterday, and supported by 35 back-benchers, congratulated the Scottish Labour Party for ex pelling "Communists. Marxists and fellow-travellers."

The motion called on the Prime Minister, as leader of the Labour Party, to take similar steps in the light of events in the Lincoln, Sheffield, Newham, Hammersmith and Haynes constituency parties, "so that those whom the Labour Party invite to support them at elections may know the true complexion of their candidates".

NEAL ASCHERSON