Former teacher vows to stand up to 'playground politician'

Published on Saturday 23 August 2008 22:07

IAIN Gray has an extra reason for wanting to secure the post of Labour leader at the Scottish Parliament. If he wins, he reckons he might finally quit smoking. The 51-year old front-runner for the job is trying to keep the cigarette count "as low as possible" as he tours the country in the hunt for support.

Those who regularly see the hangdog Gray hurtle for the exit door at the Scottish Parliament, fags in hand, know this would be no mean feat. "It is not something to be proud of and it is something I have tried to give up on many occasions," he says of his habit. And yes, he did back the smoking ban, he adds impatiently.

"David Cameron was in the same position when he became leader of the Tories but I note he was successful in giving it up so perhaps being Labour leader in Scotland will be the thing that will finally get me to kick the habit," he adds. Helping to improve Scotland's health record is perhaps an unusual incentive for Labour members thinking of voting Gray this summer – but, if the bookies are right, he looks set to win, fags or not.

From a 6-1 outsider in early June, Gray is now the hot 6-4 on favourite to win. The result is to be decided on September 13. Increasingly, it appears that he is the man who Labour will trust to go head to head against Alex Salmond's SNP in the next, potentially historic, few years. Salmond is the ultimate media performer; a politician of unparalleled communication skills who, in the words of one Labour apparatchik, "sucks oxygen from the room". Speak to anyone in the Labour party about Gray and the same problem arises. "Iain's very capable but his lack of charisma is a problem," says one close ally. So how on earth is Gray going to win?

Born in Edinburgh, Gray completed a physics degree at Edinburgh University before starting work as a teacher in Wester Hailes. He quit, first to work as a teacher in the impoverished and newly-independent state of Mozambique. Then, after returning home, he took up work with Oxfam.

His CV makes him appear like the Forrest Gump of international development, turning up in seemingly every Eighties and Nineties global trouble zone going: in the Killing Fields of Cambodia, in Chile three days after General Pinochet left office, in Rwanda just after the genocide. In 1999, the lifelong Labour supporter turned his attention to elected office, and was among Donald Dewar's new intake. He then held four different ministerial jobs, lost his seat and worked as an adviser in London, before winning a seat back again last year.

Gray is clearly irritated by the "boring" tag. He is undeniably wooden, but there is a belligerent tone beneath the flat delivery, hinting at a fierce inner ambition. "Look at my life experience," when I ask him about the Gray-by-nature claims.

He has plenty of stories about his time abroad. In Chile, visiting a fish farm where workers had complained of exploitation, he went undercover, pretending to be a marine biologist, to get into the manager's office. To protect his cover, he then claimed he didn't speak Spanish. "But then the boss turned round and said, in English, 'No problem, I studied at Stirling University – what about you?'" he recalls. A hasty exit followed.

The experiences abroad have also given him some perspective. He taught in Mozambique after the Portuguese left it in a state of total poverty, with no doctors or teachers. When he came to the Parliament in 1999, he heard one MSP claim that the Scottish NHS was in a worse state than Mozambique's. "I said, 'Well, I have experienced the Mozambique health service and I can tell you it isn't.'"

I suggest his experiences in parts of the world where poverty means people dying has made him less sympathetic to the claims of poverty in his own country. "I don't see it like that at all," he protests. "It is to our shame that there is significant poverty (in Scotland]... The necessity for supporting people is just as strong in Scotland as anywhere else in the world. The issues that concern people are the same everywhere. They want the chance of a better job, a decent wage, they want their kids to have a decent education; that's the same everywhere in the world."

His travels to the developing world also appear to have made him an optimist. "Even in circumstances where we could barely imagine the difficulties, there will always be people with aspiration and a willingness to work together and make things better," he says. Last year's election defeat for Labour showed that Scots no longer believed they were on their side, he says (it helps Gray that he wasn't part of the old McConnell regime).

He now hopes to cast himself as a serious politician against what he describes as the "playground politics" of Alex Salmond. A bit pious? "I have nothing against political banter – but I do think that if you are the First Minister of Scotland no matter what party you come from there is a degree of dignity.

"I am a collar and tie politician. If I go to a gala in my constituency, I put a collar and tie on. I might be the only one who wears it but my view is that I represent people and they are due that level of respect."

As well as opposing, Gray says he wants to put forward policies while in opposition. Bills giving every school leaver an apprenticeship, scrapping water rates for the elderly, and regulating bus services are top of his shopping list. He says he doesn't "crave" the limelight, but is certain about his leadership qualities.

He adds: "My objective is to be First Minister. If I have learned one thing over the last four weeks it is that I want to do that even more than I thought I did."