AN MP and former minister in Gordon Brown’s government laughed after asking party members south of the Border who was running to lead Labour in Scotland.
Dawn Butler, who represents London’s Brent Central, made the gaffe on a Zoom event with Plymouth Labour.
A video shows Butler speaking to members of the group about bees and mosquitos before she moves on to question "number two".
Reading aloud, Butler says: “Name the two candidates standing to be Labour leader in Scotland [laughs].
"Before anyone got excited, Scotland.”
Butler then laughs again and asks that the Zoom meeting is not being recorded. The MP is told that there are “some things that are best not saved to the cloud”.
The video has since been leaked and published by the right-wing political website Guido Fawkes. You can view it here.
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Butler is a prominent figure in UK Labour, although she lost her place on the front bench after Jeremy Corbyn resigned as leader.
She had been the shadow secretary of state for diversity, and then women and equalities, before being fired by Keir Starmer.
She also served as the minister of state for youth affairs and parliamentary secretary to the Cabinet Office from 2009 to 2010 under Brown.
Monica Lennon and Anas Sarwar are currently in the running to become the next leader of the Labour party in Scotland.
Currently Sarwar is the bookies’ favourite to win, having lost out to Richard Leonard almost four years ago.
Lennon is running on a promise to split from the main UK party, a move she claims is the best way for Scottish Labour to end its losing streak.
The two will face each other in a head-to-head debate on the BBC Scotland channel’s flagship news programme The Nine on Monday, the night before voting opens for the race to succeed Leonard.
Rebecca Curran will host the debate, which will be filmed under social distancing guidelines in the BBC’s Pacific Quay studio.
Viewers are being asked to put their questions for the two candidates by emailing The Nine at nine.news@bbc.co.uk and include their name and contact number.
A previous version of this story said that Butler had "failed to name" the Scottish Labour leadership candidates. It has become clear that Butler was asking the question, and not being asked it.
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