Just days ago Scotland’s only remaining Labour MP, Ian Murray, announced he was standing in Labour’s deputy leadership contest. Until a month ago Murray was one of seven remaining Labour MPs in Scotland, but now he stands alone after a General Election which saw the SNP take hold of thirteen new seats from the Labour Party, the Conservatives and, most notably, Liberal Democrat Leader Jo Swinson. In both the 2005 and 2010 General Elections, the Labour Party won forty-one of the fifty-nine seats in Scottish constituencies. Whilst there are an incalculable number of explanations for the loss of forty Labour seats in Scotland in under ten years – Scottish Independence and Brexit to name just two sticking points for the Labour party – Murray argues that the presence of a prominent Scottish voice at the top of the Labour Party would help reinvigorate belief in the Labour Party in Scotland. Murray, representing many Edinburgh University students in Edinburgh South, announced his bid with a call for “fresh ideas and a fresh approach”. Not only does the Labour Party need a new face and voice, Murray argues, but a new direction.
Many prominent Labour Party figures will have undoubtedly spent much of the last month trying to unpack what went wrong for the party in December’s General Election. Many of these answers will touch upon the loss of support in Labour heartlands and areas with strong historic party roots. Whilst the shift towards greater SNP support appears markedly different from the phenomena of traditional Labour seats drastically swinging towards vast Conservative majorities, it nevertheless symbolises an endemic disconnect felt by much of the traditionally Labour-voting electorate. Could a Scottish figure as the Labour Party’s deputy leader reconcile some of this loss? Could such a voice remind Westminster politics of its roots or is a more drastic change needed for Labour to reinstall support in Scotland?
Monica Lennon, a Labour MSP called for ‘epic change’ to prevent further decline of Scottish Labour support. It is time that the London-centric Labour Party stop viewing Scottish Labour as little more than a pressure group. The foolish slip-up of John McDonnell during Edinburgh Fringe, and lack of a strong party stance on Scottish Independence, Lennon argues in-part led to the defeat of the Labour Party in Scotland in December’s election. The solution, she proposes, is a split whereby Scottish Labour re-establish themselves as independent from the UK-wide Labour Party. Would this shift have the power to garner Scottish support for the Labour Party once more? What difference could this make to the perception of Westminster politics in Scotland? This would certainly allow Scottish Labour to direct itself in an entirely new direction.
Ian Murray openly addressed Lennon’s proposal and regarded it as a plausible option whilst simultaneously warning against any reflex reactions to the devastating results of the General Election for the Labour Party. Lennon’s suggestion poses an interesting set of questions, a set of questions on regional identity and party roots, that are likely to feature prominently across the upcoming months of Labour leadership campaigning.
Image: Clementcatlee via Wikimedia Commons