It’s hard Labour for Leonard ahead of party conference

RICHARD Leonard is having about as much luck in the run-up to the Labour Party conference in Dundee as Alan Partridge has had with his television comeback.

But most criticism of the Scottish Labour leader has moved on from ridicule to pity.

It seems there is no single action Leonard can take without setting off three consequential disasters.

His attempted “censorship” of calls for a second EU referendum in the conference brochure appears to have been a cut and paste balls-up of an article, rather than a conspiracy to silence debate.

It’s hard to know which is worse to believe.

A motion to conference on tackling anti-Semitism was rejected just as the GMB’s Gary Smith highlighted all the weaknesses of Leonard, one of his own members, on Brexit, on anti-Semitism, and on basically riding on the coat tails of the Jeremy Corbyn leadership.

The verdict of Smith, the trade unionists’ trade unionist, was damning, but true.

One simple rule for party leaders in a devolved political arena is to find out where the public are and get right behind them.

Another is to set yourself against the centre, more so if that centre is your own party.

Some 62 per cent of Scots voted to stay in the EU but Leonard would rather slavishly follow the fossilised views of Eurosceptic Corbyn for a “jobs first Brexit”.

That alone defines him as the branch office manager.

The only other requirement is to stick it to the opposition on the issue of the day. Read Leonard’s transcript of his car crash interview with Gordon Brewer and his basic argument against a second independence referendum is sound, no appetite for it, especially as an opening gambit in what could be PM Corbyn’s negotiations with the SNP.

But Leonard lacked the ability to get that argument across in hostile live combat.

If you can’t communicate, you don’t get listened to.

The danger for Labour under Leonard is that the Scottish public have stopped listening.