A valuable lesson in political friendship

Published on Friday 6 September 2002 01:00

IT WAS the quiet word and the sympathetic arm on the shoulder from the Prime Minister that did it.

It was 18 October, 2000 and the most powerful politicians in the land had gathered to drink tea in the grand splendour of Kelvingrove Art Galleries at Donald Dewar’s wake.

Dark-suited and wearing a black tie, Henry McLeish was standing near the entrance of the high, vaulted hall when Tony Blair approached, took him discreetly to one side and talked to him quietly and closely for several minutes.

The Prime Minister was then introduced to Julie Fulton, Mr McLeish’s wife, and then he was gone.

Even on the day of Mr Dewar’s funeral, the message to all those who witnessed it was clear - Mr McLeish had the Prime Minister’s blessing and would inherit the First Minister’s job.

However, a mere 18 months later Mr McLeish had become such an embarrassment to the party he could not go to his own Fife Labour Party dinner without being shoved to a table in the corner by anxious organisers, as far away as possible from the top-table guests Gordon Brown and John Prescott.

Mr McLeish’s announcement yesterday that he is to stand down from politics was greeted with ill-disguised relief within the Scottish Labour Party.

The MSP for Central Fife has sunk from being the chosen candidate of the Prime Minister and close confidante of Gordon, to a political pariah.

But his fall from grace, completed by his decision to retire from the Scottish Parliament, says as much about the Labour Party as it does about Mr McLeish.

It is perhaps going a little far to suggest that Mr McLeish’s departure was being celebrated at Labour headquarters in Glasgow, but the sense of victory was palpable.

Mr McLeish became a huge and obvious embarrassment to the party the moment he resigned at the height of the so-called "Officegate" scandal in November last year.

Having cheered him into office just a year before, the party hierarchy wanted him out and, over the last ten months, they have made this clear, both to him and to the press.

Now they can look ahead to next May’s elections without the fear that the former first minister’s failings will haunt them on the doorstep.

One MSP, an ally of the former first minister, said: "It was inevitable and he has done the right thing. He has been like a ghost for the past ten months, we have hardly seen him."

But he added: "Henry has every reason to feel sore with the party, the way he has been treated has not been good."

Another Labour MSP added: "Some of his former colleagues have not behaved very well over this."

Both MSPs were referring to the party’s decision not to endorse Mr McLeish’s candidacy for next year’s elections.

The official reason that was given was that the party had to wait until all the investigations into Mr McLeish were over before giving him the party’s official blessing.

Privately though, senior figures hoped that, by making it clear they were embarrassed by him, they could force him out - and that is what has happened.

Some party managers were terrified of the prospect of Mr McLeish standing again, believing that it would be impossible to shake off allegations of sleaze while he was in the party.

As time dragged on with no signal from Mr McLeish as to whether he was going to stand down or not, so the messages from the party became less and less subtle.

The catalyst came when Rosemary McKenna, regarded as the voice of the party’s Glasgow headquarters, went on television at the end of July this year to accuse Mr McLeish of telling lies.

By this time, relations between Mr McLeish and the party were so bad there was no communication between them.

Senior figures in the party had to rely on press reports and informed speculation from Mr McLeish’s friends in Fife because he would not speak to them.

One MSP said: "Henry has been treated unfairly by the media but the party has not exactly covered itself in glory either."

Indeed, Mr McLeish’s career is an object lesson to all those wanting to get involved in politics, particularly in the Labour Party.

He found out that political friends are just that, not real friends at all.

He did all the right things, kept on the side of Fife’s power broker, Mr Brown, and made friends with the right people.

Mr McLeish got to the top more by political guile and by keeping on the right side of the right people than by natural talent. He could be a shrewd political operator, but he was not a talented leader and he certainly was not a political orator.

He could fix deals but he lost his confidence early on, particularly after being ridiculed for verbal gaffes in the chamber.

Soon after he became first minister, one Cabinet minister from London summed up what was perceived as his major problem: "Henry’s trouble is that he doesn’t believe he is first minister."

He started to make both mistakes and enemies inside the Labour Party.

By the time he resigned, the Officegate scandal had become virtually unstoppable. He had admitted claiming 36,000 from the taxpayer he was not entitled to and there was no way out.

Mr McLeish felt angry and aggrieved at his resignation, believing that many of his colleagues had turned on him.

And he was right. Although there were tears from some of his colleagues on the day he quit, very few Labour MSPs rallied round him in the weeks and months that followed and even some of his closest allies started to shun him.

Ultimately, however, the signs were there from the day he assumed the Scottish Labour Party leadership in 2000.

He beat Jack McConnell to the job by securing more votes from the constituencies and the trade unions but, significantly, failed to attract the support of the majority of Labour MSPs.

This was a clear indication that, although he enjoyed the patronage of Mr Brown and senior figures in London, he was having trouble convincing his own colleagues of his merit.

Many of his fellow Labour MSPs, who stood up in public yesterday to praise his contributions as a Labour first minister, were also privately raising a glass in the pubs around Holyrood last night, in relief and joy at his departure.

And if ever Mr McLeish needed reminding why he has done the right thing in standing down, that should be it.