Iain Gray elected new leader of Scottish Labour

FORMER Holyrood minister Iain Gray has been elected the new leader of the Scottish Labour party, it was announced today.

The result of the ballot triggered by Wendy Alexander's resignation in June was announced at the party's Glasgow headquarters.

Mr Gray, who served as enterprise minister in Labour's first Scottish administration, defeated rival candidates Cathy Jamieson and Andy Kerr.

The contest also saw MSP Johann Lamont defeat fellow MSP Bill Butler by 60.18% to 39.82% in the battle for the deputy leadership.

In the fight for the leadership, no candidate achieved 50% of the votes in the first round.

The lowest rating candidate, Andy Kerr, was eliminated at that point and his supporters preferential votes were then redistributed to the two remaining candidates, Mr Gray and former Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson.

That gave Mr Gray victory by a margin of 57.79% to 42.21%.

By a quirk of coincidence both candidates for the deputy leadership are former English teachers, and Johann Lamont was able, in her victory speech, to note that even when there were policy divisions these had been expressed grammatically.

In his victory speech, Mr Gray declared: "This election is the beginning of a new direction for Scottish Labour, united around our shared values and moving forward with a common purpose."

He said that although it was sometimes argued that Labour had ruled in Scotland for 50 years, he had joined the party in Edinburgh at a time when the city had been ruled by Tories for "centuries" and at the start of 18 years of Tory rule in Scotland.

"But we won that council and we won that country and we did it by uniting around our values, by standing shoulder to shoulder – MPs, councillors, trade unions, party members."

Mr Gray told an audience of 70 activists gathered in Labour's Scottish headquarters: "We did it by addressing the things that really mattered to the people we sought to serve and telling them what we wanted to do with conviction and in language that made sense to them.

"It is time to do that again."

He told the activists: "It is time to close the manifesto on which we fought the 2007 election and to begin to write our programme for Scotland in 2011 the next Scottish Parliament elections]."

He said he would appoint a senior figure in his shadow cabinet to drive policy development and this process would reach out beyond the Labour party to develop policies "in line with our values but in partnership with wider Scotland".

This would include reform of the council tax to make it fairer while still protecting local services.

Lessons from the by-election loss of Glasgow East to the SNP would be learnt and written into "every line" of Labour's programme for winning in 2011.

Mr Gray's victory speech also contained a savage attack on SNP First Minister Alec Salmond, whose background the new Labour leader contrasted with his own.

"When Alec Salmond was an official in the Scottish Office I was learning to be a teacher in a tough school and a community activist in the biggest council housing scheme in Edinburgh," said Mr Gray.

"While he moved to the Royal Bank of Scotland I moved to Mozambique where I taught for two years in a country literally fighting for its life.

"While he spent the eighties and nineties developing the tricks of politics in Westminster, I spent them developing my values working for Oxfam."

And Mr Gray declared: "We don't need a First Minister whose pride is putting people down.

"Scotland needs a First Minister whose passion is lifting people up."

After Mr Gray's speech, and with the dust still settling on the leadership campaign, he and other party figures raced off to Fife where campaigning in the Glenrothes by-election has effectively begun even though the date has yet to be decided.

Alex Salmond and other SNP figures were campaigning there today.

Meanwhile plaudits flooded in for the new leader and his deputy.

Scottish Secretary Des Browne said the new leader had drawn support from all sections of the Labour movement in Scotland.

"Iain has an impressive mandate and will be a very effective leader," he said.

"I know Iain will work closely with the whole party in Scotland not only to expose the broken promises, cuts and unworkable policies that lie behind the SNP spin but also to develop Labour's positive vision for the future of Scotland."

Tributes also came from former Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander.

Former First Minister Jack McConnell said: "Scottish Labour has a new leadership team with experience and the ideas to take Scotland forward. I wish them well."