Labour councillor sits on toilet after forgetting camera was on during meeting

When a politician is caught with their trousers down, it never looks good.

But this quite literally happened to one Scottish councillor who forgot to turn off his camera during a virtual Glasgow City Council meeting yesterday.

Labour councillor Hanif Raja can be seen picking up his laptop, walking into his bathroom and pulling down his pants before sitting on the toilet as the Zoom call continues in the background.

Luckily, the councillor was interrupted just before beginning to relieve himself when another member asks: ‘Are you aware that your camera is live?’

Cllr Raja’s face freezes before his camera drops out as it switches to another councillor trying to stifle his laughter.

The meeting was set to discuss a planning application relating to a battery storage system on Helen Street in the city centre.

Mr Raja said he needs regular comfort breaks because he has diabetes, which means he may need to go to the toilet more often.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the ordeal happened ‘by mistake’.

He said: ‘I do apologise. It happened, the button was pressed, and I didn’t notice.

‘I’m diabetic. I need to go to the toilet every hour or so. I take a comfort break every time.

‘You don’t sleep at night, you have got to wake up three or four times. That was the reason.’

Mr Raja was elected to represent Pollokshields in 2012 and has held the ward since.

An SNP spokesperson said: ‘Hybrid working has had real benefits for family life, but you cannot be dropping the kids off at the pool during a planning meeting.’

A Glasgow City Council spokesperson said: ‘We have temporarily taken the webcast recording offline this morning.

‘It will be edited, without removing any of the discussion, and reuploaded.’

Metro has approached Scottish Labour for comment.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.