Scottish Labour may have a better chance of winning elections without Richard Leonard – Scotsman comment

Labour members focused on winning elections will have worked out they will be better off with a different Scottish leader, but the party needs to think carefully about its next step.

A recent poll showed nearly 60 per cent of the public had no opinion about Richard Leonard (Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire)

If Richard Leonard had been leader of the Scottish Conservatives, he would have been cast aside with the party’s typical ruthlessness long ago.

Jackson Carlaw was given just five months before he concluded he was not “the person best placed” to make the case for the Union as polls showed growing support for independence. He had hardly finished saying his goodbyes when his successor, Douglas Ross, took over after a leadership contest in which he was the only contender.

Labour, however, has always been a more fractious party with disputes over ideological purity far too often deemed more important than winning elections. Clearly Leonard’s rise to Scottish leader was part of the party’s move to the left and, with Jeremy Corbyn’s departure, attention was always likely to fall on a politician viewed as his representative in Scotland.

The most recent test of Labour’s popularity – last year’s general election – saw the party secure just 18.6 per cent of the vote in Scotland, down 8.5 percentage points on 2017. And a recent poll found nearly 60 per cent had no opinion of Leonard who had a personal rating of minus 28, compared to Nicola Sturgeon’s plus 36.

Leonard may have taken over a party that was already on a historic slide in terms of popularity with the electorate, but he has clearly failed to turn things around. Whatever he is doing, it is not working.

So calls for him to quit from four Scottish Labour MSPs were inevitable with next year’s Holyrood elections looming on the horizon and focussing minds on the consequences of another bad result.

But they should be under no illusions that leading their party will be a difficult job for anyone. Labour does have some able and talented politicians, but being intelligent, hard-working and sincere is no guarantee of success.

Leadership is nebulous quality that requires a degree of popular appeal but also, more importantly, the ability to communicate effectively with the public, to cut through the usual party political noise and change people’s hearts and minds. Labour has had great leaders in the past, but lately they have been left somewhat in the shade by the likes of Ruth Davidson, Sturgeon and perhaps even, despite his shortcomings, Boris Johnson.

Those in Labour who are focused on winning elections will have worked out they will be better off with a different Scottish leader. The party however still needs to think carefully about its next step and know that it can’t bank on any new incumbent improving its plight. But they do need to find a way to transform party’s fortunes or this once-dominant political force risks oblivion.

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