‘Leonard? Not exactly best leader we’ve had’ – McLeish
EMBATTLED Scots Labour leader Richard Leonard has suffered a fresh blow after party grandee Henry McLeish failed to give him his whole-hearted backing.
Mr McLeish refused to join calls for him to stand down, but admitted he was ‘not the best leader that we’ve had’ and ‘not Mr Perfect’.
It comes as Scots Labour rebels plan further moves to try to force Mr Leonard to resign, ahead of a crucial meeting of the party’s ruling SEC on Saturday.
Mr McLeish also said Scottish Labour should back another referendum, but with federalism on the ballot paper, which the party should then campaign for. ‘The party has talked about federalism from time to time, but there has been no energy, no drive,’ he writes in today’s Scottish Mail on Sunday.
‘I’m proposing a fully flexible federal framework for the UK.’
That followed Mark Drakeford, Welsh Labour’s First Minister, embarrassing Mr Leonard by saying the party should not oppose another independence vote.
Scottish Labour is already polling at a dismal 14 per cent and facing further losses in the Scottish election next year. Four MSPs – James Kelly,
Jenny Marra, Daniel Johnson and Mark Griffin – have called for Mr Leonard to stand down, and been joined by several other senior figures, including the former Nato chief Lord Robertson.
He told BBC Good Morning Scotland on Friday: ‘It’s more in sorrow than in anger that I say if Labour is going to be the alternative government in both the UK and in Scotland, then we have to do something about it, and him standing down would be a start in recovering Labour’s fortunes in Scotland, and Labour’s chances of forming a UK Government at the next election.’
It is understood pressure on Mr Leonard is likely to grow further in the coming days. One source said: ‘There are things in train. What has been interesting has been the silence from so many MSPs. It would not have taken much to have colleagues saying “now is not the time”.’
Neil Findlay, Elaine Smith and Rhoda Grant have tweeted support, but other MSPs and many of Mr Leonard’s union backers have kept quiet. It remains to be seen if another leadership contender steps forward.
Another source described a leadership challenge as ‘the nuclear option’, insisting it was hoped that Mr Leonard would instead resign. However, he has vowed to take on anyone who is willing to stand against him.
POLITICAL parties are funny beasts. They’re often compared to families – dysfunctional or otherwise. And, like families, they contain people who are thrown together rather than who necessarily choose each other.
That can create tension and sometimes such tension can no longer be managed behind closed doors.
In terms of dirty washing being laundered in public, the attempts to unseat Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard this week are a pretty stark example of a family feud that has spilled over into wider public consciousness.
At my time of writing, four of Mr Leonard’s MSP colleagues had publicly called for him to resign. All suggested that, should the Labour chief lead their party into May’s Holyrood election, the voters would reward them with a sharp downturn of support.
Two of his critics labelled their prospects in May as ‘catastrophic’, while one went further saying it could be an ‘extinction level’ result.
For a Labour Party that once weighed votes, rather than counting them north of the Border, that is some decline.
Indeed, the numbers for Richard Leonard do not look good. He’s already contested two elections as leader – last summer’s European election where he lost both of his MEPs and guided his party to fifth behind the SNP, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and the Brexit Party – and the snap General Election in December where he lost more seats (six), but did improve to come fourth by dint of hanging onto a solitary MP (who is also a well-known critic of his leadership).
But past performance is not always an indicator of future success – if it were, then no party which ever lost seats would win them back and we know the topsy-turvy world of Scottish politics sees various parties’ fortunes rise and fall like the tide.
However, those calling on Mr Leonard to depart did point to more concerning numbers – current political polling.
ONE hostile MSP, Mark Griffin, put it succinctly: ‘Less than half of the voting public know who you are – a majority of those who do have a negative opinion of your leadership and a majority of Scottish Labour voters have a negative opinion of your leadership.’
These are problems, for sure, when attempting to argue that you are the person best placed to take the party forward. I have to say, I felt pretty sorry for Richard Leonard as he slunk into First Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. Sorry for him that his colleagues had broken cover in public the night before they knew he would have to face the cameras – and a gloating Nicola Sturgeon, who (inevitably) threw a barb about him not being in post by next May.
Sorry that his strongest supporter, Neil Findlay, wasn’t in Holyrood that day to speak to colleagues and show support publicly and in the media.
I felt sorry for him that he was having to face the most intense public and media scrutiny in the same week as his office was in flux and his new chief spin doctor hadn’t even had a chance to get his feet under the table. Perhaps those speaking out had exhausted private options or felt there was no better way to debate the leadership than to declare war in public. But it’s the sort of family feud that creates bitter enmity and whose insults and injuries echo down the years.
I seldom write this column with my Tory Party hat on, but I will make this point today – it matters that Scotland has parties equipped and able to stand up to each other and test each other’s arguments.
Labour is too weak and divided at the moment to be able to. So if voters out there do want the SNP to be challenged, they need to back a party big enough and united enough to take them on – the Conservatives.