LABOUR LEONARD: I AM GOING NOWHERE
Leader rejects calls to stand down
RICHARD Leonard has doubled down on his vow to stay as Labour leader into the Scottish elections despite a volley of calls from colleagues to step down.
The beleaguered Scottish Labour leader began what is expected to be a week of fightback interviews with a morning appearance on Sky News.
Leonard rejected calls from senior party figures to step down amid polling showing the Labour vote would crash in next May’s elections. He said: “I think those people that have been calling this week for me to step down have underestimated both my resolve but also the mandate I got from the members of the Scottish Labour Party.”
He added: “The mandate that I was given by the members when they convincingly elected me to be the leader was to campaign on a radical agenda but it was also to be the leader of the Scottish Labour Party going into the May 2021 Scottish Parliament elections.”
Leonard also restated Labour’s opposition to a second referendum, even if the SNP gain a majority in Holyrood.
He said: “I am not going to concede the result to the SNP.
“On their record, whether its on education, the delivery of public services, on jobs, on green jobs, whether it’s their record on the handling of the pandemic and the scandal of what’s happened in Scotland’s residential care homes, these are big questions which the SNP will be called to account for.
“I think that when that happens, people will understand there is an alternative way that Scot l and could be governed.”