THE new leader for Scottish Labour to replace Richard Leonard will be elected by the end of next month, the party has confirmed.
Details of the contest were released yesterday following the resignation of Leonard last Thursday – less than four months away from the Holyrood elections.
The party’s executive has agreed a condensed timescale for any contest, with candidates having until midnight tonight to declare their intention to run.
They will require support from at least four of the party’s MSPs or its sole Scottish MP by midday the following Tuesday to be formally nominated.
Scottish Labour members and affiliated supporters will be able to cast their votes from Tuesday, February 9 until ballots close on Friday, February 26. The new leader will then be announced the following day, Saturday, February 27.
Health spokesperson Anas Sarwar is thought to be a potential favourite if he stands, while there has also been speculation he may face competition from Monica Lennon.
MSP Jackie Baillie, who was Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, has taken charge of the party on an interim basis.
Leonard’s successor will be the fifth leader of Scottish Labour since the independence referendum in 2014 – with Johann Lamont, Jim Murphy and Kezia Dugdale all having held the job since then.
Last year Leonard survived being ousted after a motion of no confidence in him was withdrawn, and four of his own MSPs had called on him publicly to go.
It has been reported his resignation followed a meeting at which UK Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer made his views clear.
The Zoom conference call involved Baillie, as well as potential donors, who are understood to have said they would not back Labour while Leonard stayed in his post.
Speaking at the Fabian Society’s New Year conference yesterday, Starmer insisted the decision to step down was Leonard’s decision. He added: “He’s done the honourable thing, the right thing.”
But others in the party have spoken out to criticise the reported intervention. MSP Neil Findlay – who has ruled himself out of the leadership contest – said in an interview in the Morning Star yesterday: “We’ve heard for years [Scottish] Labour has to be autonomous – don’t dare come up here and stamp on our autonomy.
“If Jeremy Corbyn or John McDonnell were in Scotland and strayed off topic on Scottish issues, they would come down on them like a ton of bricks. The very same people are saying nothing at all about this.”
One of the biggest issues for successive Scottish Labour leaders in recent years has been an independence referendum.
Early in 2020 it was reported Leonard was considering backing indyref2, after Labour MPs suffered their worst defeat in the modern era in the General Election of 2019.
But after a Scottish Executive Committee vote, the party said the policy at the Holyrood election this year would be to oppose a referendum.
Starmer has stated he will be against holding another referendum in Scotland and announced the creation of a constitutional commission, headed up by former prime minister Gordon Brown.
Yesterday former Labour MP Brian Wilson said Leonard had failed to “get into the debate” on the constitution.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland he said: “The problem for Richard Leonard, who I don’t think anyone wants to denigrate in any way – he did his best in a difficult situation – was that he never did manage to get into that debate with Labour’s very specific agenda.
“I think there is a lot of space there, I think maybe the biggest single position in Scottish electorate just now is for people whose priority is not to break up the United Kingdom, but to concentrate on the issues of education, rebuilding the economy after the pandemic, education and so on.
“It is difficult – nobody thinks it is not difficult – but if you can get the agenda of using the maximum effect of the powers that exist, the very extensive powers that exist in Scotland, then Labour can get into the debate.
“But it’s about presentation, it’s about leadership, it’s about cutting through and sadly in this age unless you can do that, then you can’t get into the debate.”
Scottish Labour’s chair, Cara Hilton, said the new leader will lead the party with “fresh energy” into the election.
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