Labour has to tighten abuse case procedures, says leader

THE Scottish Labour leader yesterday said he was unhappy with the way in which allegations of harassment against a senior party member were handled.

Richard Leonard signalled that internal processes must be tightened up, saying the party needs ‘more independent’ and ‘robust’ processes for dealing with such complaints.

He spoke out after bringing MSP Alex Rowley onto his front bench team as local government spokesman in October.

Mr Rowley stood down as Scottish Labour deputy leader in November last year after a former partner told a newspaper their relationship ‘felt like emotional blackmail and abuse’.

The Mid Scotland and Fife MSP referred himself to the party for investigation, but the

‘Emotional blackmail’

complaint was not progressed after the woman refused to allow him to see details of the claims against him.

She said she was ‘disgusted’ when he returned to Scottish Labour’s front bench team, saying at the time: ‘It doesn’t send out a very good message.’

Mr Leonard said he did not believe the party’s processes for handling such complaints were ‘entirely satisfactory’.

He added: ‘I would prefer to see a more independent procedure, there’s an element of independence in where people can go to register complaints inside the Labour Party but I think the oversight of it I would prefer to be more independent than it currently is.’

Mr Leonard said Labour was ‘trying to overhaul the party machinery that deals with complaints’.

He added: ‘It is simply unacceptable to me that these cases are taking as long as they are taking to be processed, which is neither fair to the complainer nor the complainant.’