Access problems reported in February
Campaigners were unable to access Scottish Labour systems Contact Creator, used to select voters for doorstep canvassing, and Organise, the platform used to mobilise members and coordinate campaigning, according to sources spoken to by the paper.
Problems were confirmed internally by Wednesday 11 February, just two days after Sarwar publicly called on Starmer to stand down as Labour leader and prime minister.
Scottish Labour general secretary Kate Watson acknowledged the problem at the time and said she was “working to get this resolved”, according to internal exchanges seen by The News Briefing website.
Different versions of what happened
The Scottish party has since said its understanding was that both Contact Creator and Organise were affected by a technical outage while the systems were being updated, and that similar problems had occurred outside Scotland.
UK Labour, however, has given a different account. The UK party confirmed that Organise suffered a temporary UK-wide outage, which it said was promptly resolved, but said Contact Creator remained in use and that campaign work could continue as normal.
That position differs from contemporaneous evidence seen by The Herald showing Scottish Labour campaigners reporting that they were unable to access Contact Creator as well as Organise.
There is no evidence the access problems were deliberately imposed or that they were connected to Sarwar’s intervention against Starmer.
Impact on campaigning
The loss of access had an immediate effect on campaigners preparing to speak to voters.
A Scottish Labour member involved in the campaign said the problems effectively brought parts of the party’s ground operation to a halt.
“The shut down meant we couldn’t prepare any runs,” the source said.
“That meant we couldn’t choose how to select our target list of doorknocks from the Contact Creator, and load them onto the app that helps us do that.
“In effect, we were prevented from speaking to voters.
“And Organise being shut down literally meant we couldn’t organise members to come out and chap doors, or email members.”
Scottish Labour said the issue had been resolved by the end of the week, before the following weekend when many activists would ordinarily have returned to the doorstep.
But the campaign source said those affected were not given an explanation for what had happened at the time.
“To this day, it’s completely unexplained,” they said.
“But the shut down in effect meant we couldn’t speak with voters. It prevented campaigning.”
Tensions after Sarwar’s intervention
The problems emerged at a particularly fraught moment in relations between Sarwar and the then-UK Labour leadership.
On Monday 9 February, Sarwar dramatically broke with Starmer and called for him to leave Downing Street.
“The distraction needs to end, and the leadership in Downing Street has to change,” Sarwar said at the time.
By Wednesday morning, Scottish Labour campaigners were reporting that Contact Creator and Organise were inaccessible to them.
The episode has taken on added significance following subsequent claims about the deterioration in relations between the two parties after Sarwar’s intervention.
The Scottish Sun reported last week that Scottish Labour sources accused allies of the then-prime minister of trying to “strangle” the Holyrood campaign after Sarwar called for him to quit.
One source told the newspaper that Labour HQ had sought the removal of senior Scottish Labour figures and stopped UK Labour support going to Scottish organisers, while another claimed the Scottish party had been forced to largely fund its own campaign.
UK Labour strongly disputed those allegations, saying the Holyrood campaign had received its full political and financial support.
There is no evidence those claims were connected to the problems accessing Contact Creator and Organise.
Starmer remained in Downing Street until July 20, when he was succeeded as prime minister by Andy Burnham.
Lord Sarwar has also since left Scottish politics, resigning as Scottish Labour leader after a bruising Holyrood election defeat. He was then given a peerage and appointed a trade minister in the new UK Government.
His departure triggered a contest to become Scottish Labour’s ninth leader, as the party attempts to rebuild after slumping to just 17 seats in May, its worst Holyrood result in the history of devolution.
Michael Marra, Joe Fagan and Monica Lennon are seeking to succeed Sarwar, with nominations due to close on Monday. Marra is the first to have cleared all the nomination hurdles and has secured the support of eight MSPs and 19 MPs, as well as the National Union of Mineworkers and Aslef.
UK Labour said Organise had experienced a temporary UK-wide outage and was promptly restored.
It said Contact Creator remained in use, meaning campaigning in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK could continue as normal.