Scottish Labour Leadership Hopefuls Warn Against Party Divisions

The three candidates vying to become the next leader of Scottish Labour made their pitches to party members at the first hustings of the leadership contest, held in Glasgow on Wednesday evening. Monica Lennon, Joe Fagan and Michael Marra each promised to change, rebuild and unite the party following what they described as its worst Holyrood election performance since devolution, when Labour came joint second alongside Reform with just 17 seats each.

The Contest and Its Context

The leadership race was triggered by Anas Sarwar's decision to stand down as Scottish Labour leader and MSP to join Andy Burnham's government. Sarwar had initially vowed to remain after the May election defeat but announced his resignation two months later. Nominations for the contest close on 17 August, party members and affiliated supporters will vote between 28 August and 17 September, and the new leader is due to be announced on 19 September. A handful of pro-Palestine protesters gathered outside the venue, with their chants audible during the early part of the event.

Lennon: Party in Its Worst Ever Crisis

Glasgow MSP Monica Lennon, who returned to Holyrood after taking up Sarwar's vacated regional list seat, told the audience that Scottish Labour was experiencing its worst ever crisis and that the choice facing members was stark. She urged the party to move away from the old ways that had cost it votes and warned against what she called factionalism, dirty tricks and smears. She said she would not be bullied or intimidated by those who put party control above principles, and called on Scottish Labour to get out of what she described as a coma before the party sleepwalked into electoral oblivion.

Marra: Negative Cowardly Briefings Must Stop

North East MSP Michael Marra warned that those who believed the party could simply win votes without fundamental change were dangerously deluded. He accused Scottish Labour of refusing to see the election defeat coming and failing to halt successive electoral losses despite what he characterised as a feckless, incompetent and corrupt SNP government in Holyrood. Marra called for an end to negative cowardly briefings and said the party's problems ran much deeper than organisational structures, insisting that Labour must change its culture. He warned that if the party failed to change, it would find itself in the same position in five years.

Fagan: Learn to Win Again

South Scotland MSP Joe Fagan called for the party to change more than just the faces at the top and to plant itself squarely on the side of working people. He declared that Scottish Labour needed to rediscover its courage, boldness and imagination, and said caution and division were its deadly enemies while boldness, courage and unity were its only path forward. Fagan argued that Labour had historically succeeded when it was rooted in communities and serious about people's lives, and called on the party to learn to win again.