Scots still don't know who I am, admits Gray

Published on Sunday 6 September 2009 22:12

IAIN Gray has admitted that many people in Scotland still do not know who he is a year after taking over as the leader of Labour in Holyrood.

His comments come as a new Yougov poll revealed that, in Holyrood constituency voting intentions, the SNP is eight points ahead of Labour – 36 per cent to 28 per cent – despite the bad publicity over the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

Mr Gray spoke to The Scotsman to mark the one-year anniversary of his election as the Scottish party leader, but said his job was still only half done.

"There's no hiding the fact that I need to raise my profile," he said. "I think part of that is that I am new. Alex Salmond has been around for 20 to 25 years and has been leader of the SNP for most of that time. So he's in a different position."

He added that his first year had been concentrated on stabilising the party in Holyrood after a tumultuous period under previous leader Wendy Alexander.

He said: "When I became leader I said we had to reorganise ourselves, we had to reconnect and re-engage and I think we have reorganised ourselves here in Holyrood, we have been much more effective over the last year.

"One of the challenges we have ahead is that we have to get much better at getting what we are doing out of parliament to ordinary people."

But he claimed he had started the process of trying to raise his image. Only recently has a poll had him above Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie in who people would like to see as First Minister.

"I have spent a lot of time in particular going around Scotland to show that Labour isn't just something that exists in Holyrood or the Central Belt."

This summer, Mr Gray embarked on a little-publicised tour of Scotland, going to areas like Stornoway and the Borders where Labour's support is not as high. But he insisted his party had been successful in getting its policies through, especially with the economic recovery plan and climate change.

This included acceleration of capital investment, extra money for housing, action to protect people from repossession, dropping the local income tax, town centre regeneration, and new apprenticeship places.

Mr Gray also claimed it was him pushing Mr Salmond at First Minister's Questions which forced the SNP to have the world-beating climate change bill it had previously claimed to be drafting. However, he acknowledged that some of these items had been pushed through by the Tories and the Greens as well.

But when asked why Labour does not get any credit for the achievements he claims the party has had, he said: "I guess the SNP are the administration, so they are going to take the credit for those things."

He also claimed that there is now much greater confidence in the group, epitomised by the fact that he was willing to step in as First Minister if Mr Salmond had resigned after the budget was voted down last year.

"We kept on being told that we didn't have the nerve to vote the budget down and secondly we didn't have the nouse to shape anything we wanted out of the budget, and actually we showed that we did have both."

His year as leader has also been overshadowed by claims he is a Westminster puppet and was Gordon Brown's choice to become leader after Ms Alexander resigned. But Mr Gray's spin doctors, partly in a damage limitation exercise, have pointed to his disagreement with the Prime Minister over Lockerbie.

It emerged that Mr Brown wanted Megrahi out of prison, while Mr Gray did not. "In this instance the accusation that seems to be made against me is that I don't take orders from Westminster," he noted.

"But it's never been the case that Holyrood takes orders from Westminster. That's a partisan accusation made by those who would like to think it is true."

He insisted the Prime Minister's view "doesn't affect my view on Megrahi in any way."

He added that, had he been First Minister, he would not have come under pressure to release the bomber or taken head of it, as "

if I became First Minister, UK ministers would still have to respect the fact that this was a decision for Scottish ministers".

He believes the balance of the length of time served, the heinous crime and the position of the courts out balanced the medical evidence. And he criticises Mr MacAskill for only relying on the medical evidence.

"I would not have released him to Libya and if you asked me if I would have let him die in prison I think the logic of the position I would take is that I would have refused compassionate release. That is not to say that I think Megrahi should have been denied transfer to hospital or a hospice on any grounds.

"I think I would have done that if that were necessary as any prisoner in the system can be, but I would also say that release on license in Scotland would have been less unpalatable. At least that would have made good the promise that was made to the victims' families that he would serve his sentence in Scotland."

However, Mr Gray claimed the non-interference by Mr Brown and the fact he had his own view was indicative of the real situation with how Labour is run in Scotland. "I am the leader of Labour in the Scottish Parliament, this is the judgment I took and I have held to consistently and I think that shows that the Labour Party gets devolution. I think some of the responses, from David Cameron for example, show that he claims to get devolution but he doesn't really."

But when it comes to other issues, Mr Gray is more willing to side with his colleagues in Westminster, against what many see as the Scottish interest.

In particular, he will not attack the UK government for alleged cuts of 500 million to next year's Scottish budget.

He denies there will be any cuts, arguing that Scotland's budget will be bigger than before, if not as big as expected. He points to the bail-out of the banks with a 36bn direct cash injection and 300bn of credit.

"If that action hadn't been taken those banks would have collapsed and we would have lost all the jobs, all the savings all the pensions and all the mortgages. Now that action does require some rebalancing in the budget. It is clear that Scotland has to be part of that as the whole of the UK does."

ON CHILD PROTECTION

"I am talking about a question which says: Am I happy to live in a society which says it's okay for BM not to die the way he did, because of course that's not right, but to live the way that he did?"

ON GORDON BROWN'S REPORTED VIEW THAT MEGRAHI SHOULD BE RELEASED

"Well it doesn't affect my view on Megrahi in any way."

ON WHY LABOUR HAS NOT HAD CREDIT FOR GETTING ITS POLICIES THROUGH

"I guess the SNP are the administration, so they are going to take the credit for those things."

ON PROFILE

"There's no hiding the fact that I need to raise my profile. I think part of that is that I am new, Alex Salmond has been around for 20/25 years and has been leader of the SNP for most of that time. So he's in a different position.