Scottish Labour Coup for Xmas; right wing dis-loyalists in the Labour Party consider new bid to oust leader Richard Leonard as their fears rise that the Scottish Labour Party is facing 'annihilation' at the Holyrood election, these acts of constantly undermining the leadership helps that happen, but help from Keir Starmer for the plotters, no, I doubt he wants to inherit half a party unwilling to work for him

Dear All

In a previous post, I highlighted how Scottish Labour is broken, and the truth of that is not just polling, but also election results. There are several issues that makes the party dysfunctional but two stick out like a sore thumb, the minor one is the 'fifth column' in Scottish Labour that supports independence. Then there is the main problem, that is the disunity caused by the Blairities who never accept the current leader. Ever since the downfall of Jeremy Corbyn, the right wing of the Scottish Labour Party has been keen to kick out Richard Leonard. Despite handy hints he should go and flannel of how he is a 'nice guy', Leonard is staying put. The right wing of the Scottish Labour Party wants a return to the illiberal days of Blairism, where voters, the left and members like myself, will back a return to supporting a party that 'manages the public' but doesn't represents the public. In the mind of middle class university educated careerists, Blairities, this a yearning for the golden years of power. Sadly for them, Blairism was the destruction of Scottish Labour's vote in Scotland, the idea that they can win back the Scottish people is fanciful in the extreme, rather than evolve, they remain trapped in the past.

Three things that the Scottish Labour lacks are loyalty, unity and purposeful leadership. No one can effectively be 'the leader' of the Scottish Labour Party unless both sides can rally behind the leader because they will only be a factional leader leading half a party at anyone time. Instead of falling in behind Richard Leonard, working with good grace and integrity, the right wing of the Scottish Labour chooses to destroy any chance of making progress with the public and at elections. There is a line in the movie, The Tuskegee Airmen where Andre Braugher says:

'a fair and impartial opportunity is all we ask, nothing that you yourself wouldn't demand'.

A quarter of a century later, the same phrase has currency in the Scottish Labour Party. So, why won't the right wing of the Scottish Labour Party do something rather than  nothing for Richard Leonard, but more than that something also for the members, and activists who do the graft? I remember a story that on the night before an election, senior Labour figures went out for drinks and a show, that was the same night, I was going round the doors. This is one of the reasons why I don't buy into unity speeches or place much faith in some people in the party. 

Although there is talk of another coup, let's be clear, it's too late for that now, 2020 is gone, and there is no way that anyone will get Richard Leonard to stand down, so he will be the leader taking the party into the 2021 election. He will do so handicapped by three main obstacles, by disunity, by lack of reform, and also by lack of long campaigning. Of course, we shouldn't forget that the press is playing their party in promoting Scottish Labour's destruction, and the Blairities are using the them fully. What is happening appears to be a concerted attempt to show that Scottish Labour's infighting makes them not credible as a future government in waiting and less palatable to contemplate voting for them as constituency MSPs. I suppose the common word usage for the actions to undermined Leonard is 'sabotage'. The right wing of the Scottish Labour Party is willing to throw away a future election, while at the same time holding onto their positions, whether that be as a paid politician, staffer or party worker.   

The sabotage of Richard Leonard is being done by Blairities under the guise that they want to save the Party from “annihilation” in next year’s Holyrood elections. It doesn't matter who leads Scottish Labour into the next election. Blairities 'saving the day' is also clearly is a nonsense, some of the names put forward as the 'saviours' are Jackie Baillie, Sarah Boyack and Anas Sarwar. You will notice that all the names appear to be all Blairities, it seems no one from the left can lead the Labour Party in Scotland. Can anyone explain why those on 'the left' are deemed incapable, for this I want you to look past the current crop of usual suspects as they don't represent the left as a whole. An issue which needs asked is why the Blairities who must know the party is broken, (since they broke it), have never came forward with plans to change the party for the better?  

A leading insider who doesn't have the courage of their convictions said:

“If Richard stays as leader, Scottish Labour is finished.”

And to show that the coup has more than one, a former minister says Scottish Labour was facing an existential threat.

“Keir knows the position. Lots of people are saying we are heading towards annihilation. There is a strain of thinking that says: if we let Richard stay and he loses at the Holyrood election, then he will go and we will recover.”

'We will recover' is such horse shit, did the party recover when Johann Lamont, Jim Murphy or Kezia Dugdale led it? 

They added:

“The trouble is, it will be too late by then; we would have lost half of our MSPs, lost public confidence and we might even have been overtaken by the Greens. The position would be irrecoverable.”

Public confidence has already been lost!

It went 13 years ago if you using the 2007 election bench marker, as a tangible signpost. As to being overtaken by the Scottish Greens, the core vote of the party as it stands at present makes this highly unlikely. But with Blairities sabotaging the party publicly, they may make that happen, but it will not be Leonard's fault, the blame lies with the right wing of the party. Could the party loses more seats, well, yes, is the short answer if SNP Version 2.0 takes off and they capture lots of list seats. And then there is the threat from Alliance for Unity because they would be fishing in the same voter pool as Scottish Labour. Last September, an attempt was being prepared at the party’s Scottish National Executive to oust the leader, it died a painful death, and those involved sneaked off to lick their wounds. Then came the next drip drip in the shape of MSPs Mark Griffin, Daniel Johnson, James Kelly and Jenny Marra. They came out to tell Leonard they had lost confidence in him, and they called on him to stand down. Their logic was this would avoid an electoral “catastrophe” in next May’s poll, since, Jenny Marra has decided to quit for family reasons, I guess 'saving the party' wasn't that high on her agenda.  

I suppose in one respect the return of Blairism to Scottish Labour coupled with a federalism agenda would be interesting to watch, simply because this would be the “annihilation” event for the Scottish Party. If you look at three scenarios, Leonard goes before Holyrood, Scottish Labour does badly, Keir Starmer is fucked in 2024, scenario two, Leonard stays, loses badly and again Keir Starmer is fucked in 2024. Scenario three, Leonard does well, gains seats, but still for Keir Starmer, he is fucked in 2024.  Scenario three would appear to me to be the less viable, because the party is broken, and there is no attempt to fix it. Scottish Labour is key to whether Starmer can't get into Number 10, this means that he is forced to accept Scottish Labour is broken. The party needs reform, and that means, all of it, and that does mean people have to be removed, sacked and de-selected. Labour insiders close to Sir Keir Starmer say he remains privately convinced about Richard Leonard, this begs the question why? Where is Starmer's concern for the party being broken, can he not recognise this? Can his staffers not recognise this? Can his allies in Scotland not recognise this? Why does Starmer think all the blame lies at Richard Leonard's door? The Labour Party lost Scotland due to Blairism, does Starmer think that those who left as voters et al are going to come back? Why would they come back for Keir Starmer? Is attempting to impose federalism which neither the pro UK or indy voters in Scotland want a magic pill, but the SNP will take anyway if it means getting more powers, is this his actual bargaining chip? Appeasement of Nationalists who won't vote for Scottish Labour?  

It is said that Keir Starmer is allegedly caught in a dilemma over Richard Leonard's leadership. He is said to be unsure of whether he wants to start a fight about ditching the Central Scotland MSP. Firstly, Keir Starmer knows 'fuck all about Scotland', his London based advisors know 'fuck all about Scotland', his northern 'allies', the anti Leonards are part of the problem. The party's idea of federalism fixes the indy problem is such naive bullshit, it comes out of the same wing of the party which gave us the Scottish devolution disaster. Wrong 20 years ago, and wanting to be wrong 20 years later, one development is that senior figures are calling on Starmer to get in touch with the unions and pressurise them, trade unions to use their influence to get Leonard to resign. Is Keir Starmer so dumb that he is willing to go that route? 

An insider said:

“The unions are key. Keir needs to pick up the phone and talk to them.”

Another said:

“We need to have a last go at a vote of confidence because if we wait until May, it’s all over; regardless of how difficult this is and how much blood there might be on the carpet. We might not even get to a formal vote; it might be a case of presenting to Richard the evidence he is going to lose a confidence vote and try to give him a dignified exit.”

In a chatty mood, the Labour insider added:

“He’s (Starmer) convinced it’s the right thing to do; I’m not sure he’s convinced it’s deliverable.”

As the Labour insider has indicated that a fresh attempt to oust the Scottish leader was now being seriously considered, at the highest party levels, he and they should get on it, if you cock the gun, you have to pull the trigger. Especially when confirming the ploy by saying:

“Yes, absolutely.”

One peer noted:

“Richard has tried but it’s not working. The plea should be to his conscience. He needs to do what is necessary to save the party; that’s the key thing. There is no personal animosity towards him; he should just step aside and let someone else come in who can mobilise Scottish Labour.”

“Richard has tried”, tried what exactly? As a member, I have had nothing from him or the party that anything is being tried. So, what is this, changing policy, changing people, changing structures, what represents 'tried'? I see business as usual, I don't see tried on anything, maybe someone can give me a link if they know of anything which Richard Leonard has tried out and communicated to members.

Finally, an STV poll put Scottish Labour on 14% of the Scottish vote, this places them still in third place. This remember is a party that once ruled supreme in Scotland, and this is a disgrace, but it didn't overnight, and didn't happen under Leonard. The Labour Party demise started more 20 years ago. Bad leaders, bad MPs, bad MSPs, bad policies and bad choices simply chipped away the voter base. If Keir Starmer does feel the pressing need to stick his oar in, maybe he should consider my idea for a review of all CLPs and Scottish Labour HQ, and I am not talking about people dropping by for 'tea and a chat', I am talking a forensic un-emotional breakdown of their operations with recommendations for change. As to the Scottish Blairities, Starmer should instruct them to show loyalty, commitment and drive, if they aren't willing to show that, then they should be told up front, there is no place for them as elected politicians or a future in the party. It's also time to impose a two term limit on list MSPs to shake up commitment to overhauling the party, so far I see people who appear content to languish on the list system.

Yours sincerely

George Laird                                                                                                                        The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University