Scottish Labour misspell party founder's name in major embarrassment

Scottish Labour have made a horror spelling mistake at today's party conference in Dundee.

By The Newsroom Friday, 9th March 2018, 1:29 pm Updated Friday, 9th March 2018, 1:38 pm

The party proudly promoted the “Keir Hardy” awards on a massive screen displayed behind Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard, who was on stage at the time.

The founder of the Labour Party and its first leader is Scots politician Keir Hardie, not ‘Hardy”.

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The excruciatingly embarrassing spelling error was shown in huge lettering as part of a powerpoint presentation.

Scottish Labour misspelt the party founder's name 'Keir Hardy' at today's conference in Dundee

The mistake was made after a difficult morning for UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Mr Corbyn had been mocked for a factual error made in briefing notes given to journalists.

He also quickly found himself on the defensive, having to deny any suggestion Labour was blocking debate after it emerged the party’s Scottish conference would not get the chance to vote on single market membership.

When asked if the leadership was clamping down on democratic debate, Mr Corbyn insisted: “Absolutely not.”

Scottish Labour misspelt the party founder's name 'Keir Hardy' at today's conference in Dundee

The Labour leader said: “The Scottish Executive is putting forward statements to conference which are then debated at conference.

“This is an open democratic conference with lots of new members and it’s the biggest conference for years.

“What is there not to like about that?”

While Labour’s policy is for the UK to be in a customs union with the European Union after Brexit, it does not support continued single market membership, although several motions backing this were submitted to Scottish conference organisers.

A party spokesman said the motion that had been agreed for debate “recognises that since individual motions were submitted, the situation regarding Brexit has changed significantly”.