Voting for Labour leader set to open

THE ballot opens for voting in the Scottish Labour leadership election tomorrow. Glasgow MSP Anas Sarwar is contesting the position with Central Scotland MSP Monica Lennon, to take over from Richard Leonard, who resigned last month after three years.

Members and affiliated union members have two and a half weeks to cast their vote vote, from tomorrow until February 26, with the winner announced the following day.

Whoever wins will be the 10th Scottish Labour leader since devolution and Donald Dewar taking the party into the first Holyrood elections in 1999, and the seventh since the SNP took power in 2007.

With no actual live events taking place, the contest is mainly being fought online.

Both MSPs are campaigning across the country with a series of online hustings organised for members to make their case for leading the party.

They will take part in a headto-head debate on BBC Scotland tonight.

Mr Sarwar has launched a campaign video highlighting his vision for Labour.

He said: “I don’t want to go back to fighting and division. I want us to move forward, to rebuild our party so we can unite and rebuild the country we love.”

He mentioned the founding principles of Keir Hardie, Donald Dewar and the creation of the Scottish Parliament and the last Labour Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, whom he said “led the nation’s fight against the scandal of child poverty”.

Mr Sarwar added he wanted to “tackle poverty, fight the climate crisis” and “restore the NHS so it never again has to choose between treating a virus or treating cancer”.

Mr Sarwar has endorsements from most of the party’s parliamentarians, with 17 of 24 MSPs and MPs backing him, including the other three Glasgow Labour MSPs – Johann Lamont, a former party leader, James Kelly and Pauline McNeill.

He also had support from the

GMB union and Usdaw, the shop workers’ union, as well as backing from former first minister Jack McConnell and former Glasgow Labour group leader Frank McAveety.

Mr Sarwar is a former dentist and has been a Glasgow MSP since 2016, and was previously MP for Glasgow Central between 2010 and 2015.

Ms Lennon has the support of Unite the Union, public sector union Unison, transport union TSSA and and the postal and telecoms union CWU.

She is backed by left-wing MSPs Neil Findlay, Elaine Smith and Alex Rowley, a former deputy leader.

Ms Lennon is a former planning officer with South Lanarkshire Council and was then a councillor in the area, from 2012 to 2016.

She has been an MSP since the 2016 election and the party’s health spokeswoman since 2018, taking on the role from Mr Sarwar under Mr Leonard’s leadership.

Ms Lennon said she will provide a new generation of leadership while staying true to Labour’s values, “fighting for radical social and economic change”.

She said: “The Labour Party was created to give opportunities to working people and to enable them to make a better life for themselves. Our politics should be about getting things done and delivering results, real positive change that will improve people’s lives.

“The Scottish Labour Party that I lead will face the country as it is today. Independence is not the answer to Scotland’s problems, but we will never defeat the argument by running away from it.

“Of course, we must never Tory or SNP governments the hook for their choices records.

“Our job is to inspire people by offering a socialist alternative, rooted in our commitment to devolution and empowering local government so that we can bring decisions closer to our communities.” let off and