AND THEN THERE WAS 1
Change or party will die, Labour’s only Scottish MP warns leadership
BATTERED and bruised, Richard Leonard vowed to battle on yesterday despite overseeing a catastrophic collapse in support for his party.
The Scottish Labour leader said that he would stay at the helm after a punishing General Election also left the party riven by infighting.
Last night he signalled he will lead Labour into the 2021 Holyrood election as the party’s only remaining MP in Scotland demanded a change in ‘ideology’ or it ‘will die’.
Ian Murray launched an attack on the Labour leadership yesterday after retaining his Edinburgh South seat, while six of his colleagues were ousted by the SNP.
Mr Murray, a long-time critic of Jeremy Corbyn, blamed the national party leader and his followers for the devastating UK-wide defeat.
After his victory he said Labour had let down millions of people by failing to stand as a ‘credible opposition’.
Mr Corbyn has pledged not to take the Labour Party into another general election, and said he will stand down once a new leader has been found. Mr Leonard is also facing calls to quit after a disastrous night in Scotland.
Labour’s vote share plummeted by 8.5 percentage points, with just over half a million people north of the Border supporting Mr Corbyn’s vision. But last night Mr Leonard signalled he would not step down.
He said the party’s failure to appeal to voters on the big constitutional issues – Brexit and independence – was to blame for the defeat.
He added: ‘I was deeply disappointed by the result, and the result will be devastating to everyone who needs a Labour government most.
‘But the voters have spoken and we must listen. Constitutional issues have played a major role in our defeat. It is clear we must do more to win back the trust of people on both sides of the Brexit and Scottish independence debates.’
However, he added: ‘We know that our nine
‘Voters have spoken and we must listen’
years of opposition at Westminster did not come to an end last night.
‘But in 2021, I am determined that our 14 years of opposition will come to an end in the Scottish parliament. This is ambitious, but we should not apologise for our ambition.’
Mr Murray was the only Labour MP in Scotland to cling on to his seat after colleagues including shadow Scottish secretary Lesley
Laird and East Lothian MP Martin Whitfield lost out to the SNP.
This is the second time he has been the only representative at Westminster for Scottish Labour following the 2015 SNP landslide.
Mr Murray did not hold back following his victory as he blamed Mr Corbyn, his ideology and his followers for failing both voters and the country in general.
He claimed that if radical change does not take place at the top of Labour ‘this party will die’.
Mr Murray added: ‘The saddest indictment of this General Election campaign is the delivery of a Conservative majority government with the worst Prime Minister this country has ever seen.
‘That’s a sad indictment on the Labour Party. We’re not just letting down the Labour Party, we’re letting down the millions of people of this wonderful nation by not even having a credible opposition, never mind a credible alternative government.’
He added: ‘For the sake of the Labour movement, for the sake of the Labour Party, but more importantly for the sake of the country, not only does the person have to go but the policy and the ideology has to go as well.’
Meanwhile, former Labour minister Tom Harris said that with Mr Corbyn gone from UK Labour it will leave Mr Leonard ‘more isolated than ever. Terminally so’.
But former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale told the BBC she believes Mr Leonard’s job is secure as ‘bluntly, I don’t think anyone wants it’.
In the European elections this year, Labour was also wiped out in Scotland, losing its two MEPs.