The last days of power for Labour in Glasgow? McAveety doesn’t think so
INTERVIEW
FRANK McAveety, for now at least, is the most powerful Labour politician in Scotland. But as leader of the nation’s biggest council, Glasgow, he also happens to be top of the SNP’s hit list in May’s local elections. Nicola Sturgeon’s party is tipped to take one of Scottish Labour’s last bastions of power on May 4, seizing what would be a jewel in the crown for the SNP and representing what for many would be the final nail in the coffin of Scotland’s once-dominant political force.
If the opinion polls are anything like accurate, McAveety will be ousted as council leader in less than a month in what could also precipitate the end of a political career that stretches back to some of Labour’s glory days in Scotland. Sitting in the leaders’ office at Glasgow City Chambers, however, McAveety is not giving off the vibe of a politician presiding over the last days or weeks of his party’s decades-long rule of Scotland’s biggest city.
“Every election you are fighting for your political life,” McAveety says when asked if he accepts Labour is the underdog this time around.
In a reference to the SNP’s ill-fated bid to win Glasgow in the last set of local council elections in 2012, McAveety sounds somewhat composed for a politician battling against what would be yet another epic humiliation for Scottish Labour.
“Five years ago the SNP said they were going to change the administration in this city and that there was going to be a door in the city chambers wide enough for Alex Salmond to come in through,” says the former MSP and minister, in a swipe at one of his old rivals. “The simple fact is we’ve been delivering,” is the refrain McAveety uses about his “good track record” in the 18 months since he took over as council leader – a role he also held between 1997 and 1999 before his time as an MSP.
McAveety, as leader of what is the UK’s third-biggest local authority, is one of Labour’s most powerful local government figures, along with London mayor Sadiq Khan. Khan, who announced an ultra-low emission zone in central London, where diesel cars will be charged £12.50 from April, 2019, is someone McAveety speaks highly of, saying: “Sadiq Khan has showed us that when Labour is in power, Labour can make a difference”.
On the issue of whether Glasgow should introduce a similar scheme, McAveety conceded that “anything that brings environmental improvement should be looked at,” but added that Glasgow Council did not have the powers to bring in such a charge.
He said: “I don’t have the powers on that. Places like London and Manchester have got greater autonomy and powers to make decisions that improve the lives of their citizens.”
When asked if he backed the policy and if it should be considered, he added: “Anything that brings environmental improvement should be looked at. I’m focused on the powers I’ve got.”
He added: “Look, let’s be clear about these issues. Glasgow is on an improving curve. We’ve been closely involved in the development of the Clean Air for Scotland Strategy. This is a positive step and includes trying to get to a National Low Emission Framework. But that won’t be worth all the effort if it isn’t matched by new powers.
“Take the hot spots in Glasgow – Byres Road, Parkhead Cross, and Argyle Street. The biggest problems are almost certainly a product of emissions belching from stationary buses. There are regulations but more powers for local government over private buses would make a huge difference. The council can’t do much about cowboy companies running down Renfield Street in bangers that are 20 years old.”
However, McAveety, unlike Khan, who has three years left in office, is facing a very real threat to his position.
Elected as an MSP in the first Scottish Parliament elections of 1999 at the high watermark of New Labour’s dominance, McAveety is one of a dwindling band of Labour figures in the UK from that era to still exercise the levers of power.
“I don’t do regrets, no, I don’t,” says McAveety, when asked about his colourful career, that was dealt a major blow when he lost his seat in the SNP landslide of 2011, but which also included a resignation and a sacking following embarrassing gaffes at Holyrood.
McAveety – who was previously appointed deputy local government minister by Donald Dewar and stripped of the post in 2001 when Jack McConnell took over from Henry McLeish – says: “What happened to me happened to me personally. I’m interested in what difference we [Labour] can make now,” adding that “opponents try to portray you negatively”.
“I live in a resilient city; if knocked down you get up again – so I’ve done that,” adds McAveety. But does this “comeback kid” of Scottish politics really believe he can buck the trend when Labour is polling such terrible figures?
When asked about Labour’s demise in Scotland, there’s an air of defiance: “Glasgow voters are very independent-minded,” he says, and claims the electorate is growing weary of the SNP after a decade in power and the ongoing campaign for independence.
“We’ve had ten years of SNP government, ten years of cuts and there has been absolute silence from the SNP. They are only interested in what opportunities independence can offer.
“People are getting scunnered with Nicola Sturgeon and disappointed in the SNP. They feel they promised a lot and delivered very little. People are disappointed in the SNP, a party that’s not interested in the day job and is more interested in a referendum.”
Again asked whether he accepts there is a possibility he could soon be replaced by the SNP’s group leader on Glasgow Council, Susan Aitken, he says: “I’m confident we will be re-elected.”
Should Labour lose control of the council, will McAveety call it a day in frontline politics? The 54-year-old insists he will serve a full term as a councillor if he is re-elected to Shettleston next month. But would McAveety contemplate seeking election to Holyrood again?
“I was asked to do this job and I love this job, one of the best jobs in Scotland,” he says. When pressed whether he would stand again to be an MSP, he twice says no – something that raises the stakes for him personally on May 4. It’s a response that suggests that defeat for Labour in what was once such a stronghold could also spell the end of one of the more colourful figures of the devolution era and one of the last remaining links the party has to power.
Five years ago the SNP said they were going to change the administration in this city and that there was going to be a door in the city chambers wide enough for Alex Salmond to come in through