Leonard: It’s fine, Labour were already doing badly
After calls to quit, leader says he inherited struggling party
SCOTTISH Labour’s underfire leader yesterday tried to defend the party’s dismal performance – by insisting it had not got any worse since he took over.
Richard Leonard said its decline was ‘part of a long-term trend’ and hit back at critics by saying they had underestimated his ‘resolve’ to stay in post.
He pointed out that Labour was in third place when he became its leader – and remained there now.
Former Labour minister Brian Wilson said Mr Leonard was being done ‘no favours’ by allies urging him to stay ‘regardless of consequences’.
It came as it was revealed Labour’s Shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray had privately warned the party lacks ‘credibility’ in Scotland.
Last week, four MSPs called for Mr Leonard to quit – and were backed by four peers and a member of Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet.
But on the Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme on Sky News yesterday, he said those calling for him to stand down have ‘underestimated my resolve’.
Asked if he could understand people’s concern, now Labour has gone from the ‘dominant’ party in Scotland to ‘almost an irrelevance’ with just one MP, he said that was ‘part of a long-term trend’.
When Miss Ridge said some believe ‘the last thing the Labour party needs is a Scottish leader who is failing to get more than 14 per cent in the polls, he said: ‘Well, when I inherited the party it was in third place, it still is in third place, but we’ve got an opportunity here to start to make real progress.’
In last year’s European elections, Labour slid to fifth place in Scotland with just 9 per cent of the vote.
In December’s general election, it was third on vote share but won just one seat – behind the SNP, Conservatives and the Lib Dems. Dean Lockhart, Scottish Conservative constitution spokesman, said: ‘The Labour Party in Scotland is in the midst of internal strife. It’s a party in chaos.
‘It is becoming clear Labour voters have been losing faith in their party for some time now. This has been reflected in recent elections and opinion polls despite all the protestations of Richard Leonard.’
Senior figures in the party have called for their leader to consider his position.
In a newspaper article, former energy minister Mr Wilson compared the debate over Mr Leonard’s future in the job to the approach taken by the Tories, where ‘a leader perceived to be a loser is dispatched with minimum gratitude and maximum ruthlessness’.
He said: ‘Labour worries about these things and Richard Leonard should not prolong its dilemma. I suspect he is being done no favours by a cadre who insist he must stay, regardless of consequences.
‘In this respect, he may be little different from (former UK leader) Jeremy Corbyn, on whose tide he was swept into a position he never expected to hold and in which he has proved decent but inadequate.’
According to the Sun newspaper, Mr Murray raised concerns about the party’s approach in Scotland with members of Walthamstow Labour.
Referring to a blog that hailed the SNP’s ‘Standing up for Scotland’ message, he said: ‘It polls as the most powerful
‘People think we’re irrelevant’
political slogan of all time, and we have to say let’s try and take this apart gradually.
‘But the only way we can start is to have some credibility, and Labour in Scotland doesn’t have any, therefore people think we’re irrelevant.’
A source close to Mr Murray said the comments referred to the party’s lack of credibility on Brexit and independence under Mr Corbyn.
Meanwhile, a Tory MP came under fire from members of her own party after suggesting that Mr Leonard’s English accent is to blame for his party’s failure in Scotland.
Following his appearance on the Sophy Ridge programme, Dehenna Davison, Tory MP for Bishop Auckland, wrote on social media: ‘Watching @SophyRidgeSky and she is discussing why the Labour Party isn’t doing well in Scotland. I think I’ve got to the bottom of it. The Scottish Labour Leader... has a broad Lancashire accent. No word of a lie, he sounds like he could be the Speaker’s brother!’
A Scottish Conservative spokesman said the comment was ‘unacceptable’ and ‘plays into the kind of divisive politics the SNP promote’.
Mr Leonard responded by saying he came to Scotland to study at Stirling University four decades ago and ‘Scotland has been my home ever since’. He added: ‘And it’s a broad Yorkshire accent, as it happens!’
Tory MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston said: ‘Richard Leonard’s accent isn’t the reason (nor should it be in our United Kingdom) why Scottish Labour are struggling so badly.
‘It’s their lack of ideas, internal divisions and their conspicuous lack of opposition to the SNP’s plans to break up the UK.’