Kerr: Holyrood leader should be Labour's voice in Scotland

Published on Monday 28 July 2008 15:04

ONE of the MSPs bidding to lead the Labour group in the Scottish Parliament today called for the job to be given a wider remit.

Andy Kerr, the party's public services spokesman at Holyrood, said he would argue during the leadership contest for the post to carry a bigger role and more influential voice.

At the moment, the job is officially only leader of Labour's MSP group, but there have been calls for the position to be made leader of the party in Scotland.

Mr Kerr is one of three front-runners in the race to succeed Wendy Alexander, who quit earlier this month after the parliament's standards committee ruled she had broken the rules by failing to register campaign donations.

He will battle it out with finance spokesman and East Lothian MSP Iain Gray and former Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson for the votes of party members, parliamentarians and trade unionists in the internal election.

The contest was put on hold during the Glasgow East by-election, which ended in a narrow victory for the SNP.

Today Labour party bosses were meeting to agree the timetable for the leadership election. Their aim is to have a new leader in place before the UK Labour Party conference in Manchester in late September.

Mr Kerr, who is MSP for East Kilbride, said today he believed the job should not be limited to leading Labour MSPs at Holyrood.

"I think it's a bigger job than that," he said, "I think it's about the voice of Scottish Labour. It's about the policies we make in Scotland which will see people going back to the people's party in Scotland."

"I have to say I think the leader in Scotland needs to have a much wider voice, a much more influential voice and a much stronger voice. That's what I intend to say during the campaign."

Mr Kerr also said he wanted to look at the electoral system for the Holyrood leader, in which Westminster MPs also have a vote, saying this could be expanded to include Labour councillors around Scotland.

He said: "I think the voice should be a bigger voice, a wider voice, and should be one which is all encompassing and not just focussed on the Scottish Parliament only."

Ms Jamieson is expected to enter the race officially tonight and Mr Gray will launch his campaign later in the week.

Glasgow MSP Charlie Gordon and East Renfrewshire MSP Ken Macintosh have also indicated they want to stand, but there are doubts over whether they could secure the necessary backing of six MSPs to qualify as a candidate.

Mr Gordon, a former leader of Glasgow City Council, is seen as being tarnished by his involvement in Ms Alexander's donations row.