Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
We have to take risks ... there’s a big job to do
Labour leader Richard Leonard talks about his vision for the party and Scotland’s future
Judith Tonner
Richard Leonard is reflecting on his first six months as Scottish Labour leader – and says he’s working towards leading the party back into government at the next Holyrood election.
The Central Scotland MSP took up the leadership reins in November, just 18 months after first entering the Scottish Parliament as a regional list representative in a ballot which saw his party finish a disappointing third in the polls.
He told the Advertiser in an exclusive interview how he is set on “driving the Labour party in a more radical direction” as he meets the challenges of leadership.
Mr Leonard said: “We’re currently in third place in Scottish politics. My ambition is to win the 2021 election, so the first six months have been about trying to lay the foundations for that.
“One of the things I’ve prioritised is to restore confidence within the Labour party and movement.
“We stood in the 2016 and 2017 elections largely putting ourselves forward as a strong opposition, so didn’t appear to have the ambition of government – if we don’t believe in ourselves, how can we expect everyone else to believe in and vote for us?
“It’s been about trying to give a distinctive policy outlook, some renewed credibility, reconnect with the trade union movement – the Labour party was brought into being by Keir Hardie and the trade unions in Lanarkshire.
“Any process of change takes time but I think the Labour party has to take a few risks as there’s a big job to do and we have a platform from last year’s general election on which we can build.”
Mr Leonard cites poverty and social injustice as major issues, saying: “We can’t go on drifting in a direction where these are going up.
“People like John Smith always argued that these are issues for all of us because it’s about the kind of society we live in, and widening poverty and inequality diminish us all.
“Child poverty is a big issue in Lanarkshire – there’s lots of talk about closing the educational attainment gap but I’ve long held the view that you’ll never [do so] while children are being brought up in overcrowded housing, in households where working people are being paid less than a living wage.
“For the first time, the future for young people could be worse than for the previous generation.
“They’re forced into the private rented sector, which needs much better regulation, and more and more young people are going into work on zerohour contracts and short-term working, so they’re really disadvantaged.”
Calling the past decade “an era of austerity”, he continued: “People’s living standards have got worse. We’re developing a programme which looks at how, on day one of taking power, we would address those questions.
“We have an obligation to provide shelter and a safe, decent home, decent job, public services, schools for our kids and care services for our elderly.
“It’s a very good thing that people are living longer so we need to plan as a society and think big when it comes to social care.
“Part of my task as leader is to make it appeal to everybody to take up those issues of social injustice. We can’t just wish it to change and as a society that might mean we need a fairer system of taxation, but we do need to have a fundamental look at the kind of public services we’re going to need in 10 and 20 years’ time.”
He said of his time as leader to date: “We’ve got into a situation where the Scottish Government has understood that its budget agenda can’t stand still – we’ve got them at least to acknowledge that there needs to be more progressive taxation, and that there are powers they can use by calling for things like an industrial strategy.
“Our achievements have been to push the SNP government in the direction which we think they should be, but on the whole their response has been fairly timid. I firmly believe we can’t keep on the way that we are, just managing things a bit differently or tinkering round the edges – the people of Scotland demand real change.”
Mr Leonard was a prominent trade union leader and is a former chair of the party, but was not well known by voters ahead of his election.
In 2016 he stood in Airdrie & Shotts, finishing runner-up to Alex Neil, but entered Holyrood as a regional MSP after party members placed him first on their regional list.
Of his rise to party prominence he added: “I’ve never hidden from the fact I wasn’t hugely well-known when I was elected leader, but I’m getting recognised more and people’s response has been very positive.
“I’m learning and building all the time, and it’s those small things like when people come up to you on the train, giving encouragement and saying, ‘what you’re doing is right’ that give me confidence we’re going in the right direction.”