Why Labour’s Neil Findlay is ready to publish his secret diary on Corbyn, Better Together and his wife’s brave fight against cancer
LABOUR’S Neil Findlay can be seen early most mornings when Parliament is sitting sipping a coffee in the staff canteen before the day’s business gets started.
It’s just turned 8am, at the fag end of Holyrood’s summer session as the MSP, Jeremy Corbyn’s closest ally in Scotland, provides the backdrop to one of the most dramatic political periods in living memory.
As the man who ran Corbyn’s leadership campaigns in Scotland, stood against Jim Murphy in the contest to lead Scottish Labour and championed a campaign to clear the names of convicted striking miners, Findlay is no stranger to turbu- lence. “I never thought for one second that I was going to be involved in the whole Corbyn phenomenon so it’s a very interesting and exciting time,” Findlay says, as he finishes his coffee.
There’s no hint of name-dropping from him, but there’s little doubt he’s closer to Corbyn than any other politician in Scotland, and certainly more so than Kezia Dugdale. “On a personal level I don’t speak to him every day, but if I need to get any dialogue that’s not a problem,” he says when asked how often he is in touch with the UK Labour leader. It’s not just political turbulence that Findlay has been living with in the years since the former bricklayer and teacher was elected as a Lothians MSP back in 2011 – his troubles have been personal, too. Findlay’s involvement in the battle for Labour’s soul took place while his wife of two decades, Fiona, was battling breast cancer before later being given the all-clear. “She encourages people to talk about it and is desperate to get the message across to young women in particular about health checks,” says Findlay when asked if he minds talking about the trauma.
Reflecting on how he, Fiona and their daughter Chloe coped with the illness, he says: “She’s [Fiona] very open about it. When my daughter’s friends come to our house Fiona causes them deep embarrassment by wagging her finger at them and telling them to check their t*ts,” he says, laughing loudly and attracting the gaze of others in the canteen.
JUST how did he handle being at the epicentre of Corbyn’s leadership campaign operation and work as an MSP, while his wife battled illness? He says: “She and my daughter instructed me to just go to work and do the same things, until the time when that can’t happen – and thankfully that time never came.”
Findlay’s time in parliament included Labour’s controversial involvement in the Better Together alliance with the Tories. “I was involved in the cut and thrust of the referendum,” says Findlay despite his boycott of Better Together. “I was involved in something like 65 to 70 meetings, debating with people like Jim Sillars, Tommy Sheridan, Kenny MacAskill and Dennis Canavan,” he says of his involvement in Labour movement campaigns against independence instead of the official campaign.
It’s Findlay’s diary account of the referendum and its aftermath that could make for one of the most explosive accounts of Scottish politics in recent years, with references to some of the key protagonists. “I’m going to see the publisher today,” Findlay says, confirming that the book will be out in the autumn. “It will have the highs and lows – and I put that diplomatically,” he adds in a veiled reference to schisms.
The diary will cover Findlay’s unsuccessful attempt to defeat Murphy for the Scottish Labour leadership in late 2014. There will also be an account of what he says was Labour’s “dreadful” 2015 General Election, when the party was almost wiped out in Scotland on Murphy’s watch. That setback, the Brexit campaign and a behindthe-scenes story of UK Labour’s two internecine leadership battles in 2015 and 2016 suggest those looking for a tell-all book won’t be disappointed.
Findlay puts it this way: “Generally, the idea for it was that 2014 was going to be a pretty seismic year for Scotland and promised to be such a huge event, so I kept a diary of it. It was for my records initially. But it goes on to the General Election, the dreadful General Election – and Jeremy’s [Corbyn] campaign later that year. Then we had the European referendum and Jeremy’s second campaign. A diary that I originally intended to stick in my drawer for my old age was suddenly much longer and more dynamic so I started writing it up on holiday.”
Findlay laughs again and appears half-tempted to preview his book, but when invited again to do so says “watch this space” – emphasising, however, that “there will be a critique”, of Better Together. “There will be a commentary of what I see as the strategic errors of the Better Together campaign. The main strategic error being that it was established in the first place. We cannot spend 30 years or more since the miners’ strike telling people the Tories are the biggest bunch of b*****ds and then stand beside them.”
When asked whether there is direct criticism of the likes of Murphy and other No campaign figureheads such as Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown, Findlay says: “It would be impossible to comment on that period without referring to major players in the referendum.” But there’s also unfinished business for him, referring to the campaign he’s fronted for five years, for a review of the convictions of striking miners from the 198485 dispute. “My view is that if the Tories are going to block the issue there is an opportunity for us to do something different,” he says of his call for the SNP to order an inquiry into the convictions of 500 Scottish miners that he believes were unsafe. It’s something the SNP has resisted, although Justice Secretary Michael Matheson pledged to “reflect” on the issue last December.
Findlay says: “I went to see Michael Matheson and we had a very good meeting and it was probably the most positive sign that something would be done. But now we’re in June and nothing has happened and that’s a disappointment.” He suggests that a Private Members’ Bill to force Holyrood to legislate for an inquiry may be an option if the SNP fails to act. “That’s a possibility and I would consider it,” says Findlay in a hint of another turbulent battle to come.