Monica Lennon: ‘It breaks my heart working class people don’t think we’re on their side’
Scottish Labour leadership contender Monica Lennon has said her party needs to learn to speak the language of voters who have switched support to the SNP if it is to “make up for lost time” before the Holyrood elections.
Ms Lennon, who is running against Anas Sarwar to be her party's tenth leader in the devolution era, also said that under Richard Leonard's leadership there was too much focus on historic party achievements.
The list MSP, who was first elected to Holyrood in 2016, said she and her rival are supporting each other through the leadership race but hopes that her track record of achievements, including the Period Products Bill will see her elected.
She also raised concerns that women are leaving the political frontline because of “vile” social media abuse, and that she’d thought hard about standing for leader as a result.
“There wasn’t a huge amount of time to think between Richard Leonard resigning on the Thursday and the party wheels moving so quickly, with potential candidates for leadership having to have their names in by the Sunday night,” she said. “As a working mum there was a lot to think about, but I had a lot of encouragement from party members from right across the movement.
“Anas had come out quite early to say he was running so I had that to think about too because he’d run before and I think people would have known what they would get from Anas and I wondered if it was too late for me to get a campaign running, but I decided to to do it because the Labour Party in Scotland needs to change.”
She added: “You need a lot of resilience. It's not always easy as a woman in politics – and I have to admit the idea of doing this race in lockdown when I can't get my hair cut, my nails are falling apart, I've put on weight was terrifying – but I'm a serious politician and I think most people in the country are not interested in whether a woman has a bit of grey hair but what you're going to do for their families, are you on their side?
“I'm absolutely on the side of working people, people struggling to get by… I can't pretend to be someone I’m not, and it’s got me this far. Yes there's days I don't believe in myself, and that's why you can't do these things alone. I’ve got an amazing team of friends about me, supporting me. And there are times I bang on Taylor Swift and listen to The Man.
“I know women who are amazing, who have so much to offer public life, not just as politicians, but they’re walking away from it because it's brutal. Social media can be so vile. I’ve had to go the police on occasion… I remember being afraid to walk the streets, but I don't feel afraid now. No-one wants to be looking over their shoulder, that’s why we need more civility and respect in our politics.
"Anas and I most days are in touch asking if we’re each okay. We've been doing hustings with party members via zoom and we're both busy and exhausted and trying to gee each other up, because whatever happens we’re colleagues and need to work together.”
She admitted that Sarwar has more experience as an elected politician than her, but believes that members will be looking at differences in policy, and in particular on the “constitutional challenge”. She also refused to be drawn into discussing the issues which Sarwar continues to face about sending his children to private school, or whether his family firm pays the living wage.
“Anas can't change his family background in the same way I can't change mine,” she says. “I would never comment on anything private in his life. I feel proud the campaign has so far been positive and Anas and I have good communication – we agree we want to showcase the SLP and put forward positivity and make up for lost time.
“It's fine to have a debate on constitutional issues, but we're doing that respectfully. We're a small team in the Parliament, we’ve only got 23 MSPS we can't tear lumps out of each other, we've tried that and it doesn’t work.”
The constitution is the main dividing line between the pair. Sarwar is emphatically against a second independence referendum and has urged Labour members to stop being “fatalistic” about one being held.
Lennon said: “Scottish Labour needs to be part of the conversation, we talk about everything else but the constitution despite it being a dominant issue for people in Scotland.
"There's a whole range of views from those who want to break away from the union at the earliest opportunity, to hard-line unionists who would abolish the Scottish Parliament, so it's difficult to have a message that pleases all those people, I don't think that possible.
"We need to get back to our roots, we are the party of workers and it breaks my heart that working class communities don't think we're on their side.
“I don't believe in or want independence and I don't want another referendum but saying that is not enough. I think, and I know it's a different opinion from other colleagues, the matter needs to be settled in Scotland and shouldn't be up to Boris Johnson, or any other UK Prime Minister, as that's where we're getting all this tension.
"So if in the future, at any point down the line, people in Scotland want to have a referendum that's for the people of Scotland to decide. If we sit it out and say we’re not going to talk about it, we don't get to influence the terms of that debate. Blair Mcdougall [former Better Together strategist] was right when he said those who believe in the union need to get their act together, there's no grassroots movement campaign saying the union is worth protecting and saving. There's a vacuum and we need to fill that.”
She added: "There's a gap between SNP rhetoric and record. We’ve had 14 wasted years where they've promised a lot and failed to deliver. They’re not using the powers as fully and progressively as they should, but there are also powers which should come to Scotland, around tackling drug deaths, or employment law. We should take the argument forward to show there's a need for those powers, but that’s not caving in to nationalism. But if Scottish Labour doesn't learn to have dialogue with people on their terms, in a language they want to speak, we won't get a hearing or be anybody’s party.”
Change was what was promised by Richard Leonard when elected three years ago, but Lennon believes her offer is of a different kind of change.
“We can’t keep doing things the same way. I reflect on my time in Parliament – which hasn’t always been fun, it's been a rollercoaster – but what I've always tried to do is work with people across the party and outside the party and to connect what we do in Parliament to people's lives in the community... for me politics has to be practical it has to be about giving people what they need materially to make their lives better.
“I’ve reflected on all of that, and the lessons I have learned, actively listening to people, asking them what would make their lives better, not just commentating on working class communities, but rolling up your sleeves and doing the hard work, so I have a track record outside Parliament and as an MSP who has been working at a high level as health and social care spokesperson in the worst of times, during this pandemic.
“I’m committed to doing politics differently. I’m talking about my track record, a long list of results I’ve achieved in Parliament – not sound bites and speeches, it's doing the work, building teams to get things done.
“Under Richard we’ve got ourselves to a place where we do have a strong progressive policy agenda and everyone is committed to that but where we've struggled is to get the message across, to get cut through. People don't like the brand of Scottish Labour – we have to show we're a confident future-looking party.
“All too often we've talked about Labour history and held up figures of the past, such as Mary Barbour who's amazing, but what about the women who are doing the work right now, not just in Parliament but as councillors and activists? We look to the past because we're not confident in who we are now.
"I want to be relentlessly focused on the future. It's not easy to stand up and say I want to be a leader of Scottish Labour but I know I won’t be doing this alone.”